I am very pleased to announce Andrew Verster: Fragile Paradise, opening in late April 2025 – the inaugural exhibition of Isaac Benigson – Old and Interesting Art – located at 40 Great Russell Street, London.

Although South African artist Andrew Verster (1937 – 2020) was greatly celebrated during his lifetime as a painter, critic, and pedagogue, he has drifted into something of an art historical footnote. Deeply entwined with the east coast city of Durban, where he lived for most of his working life, Verster created images of the sun-drenched tropical city, both real and imagined.

He is considered to be South Africa’s first openly queer artist, representing same-sex desire with an unabashed vim. Portraits of lovers and the cruising ground of Durban’s beaches populated the first flush of his career. Later, in perhaps his most pertinent artworks, Durban’s verdant, tropical foliage came to dominate. Abstract images of a Fragile Paradise (the series’s eponym) render the tensions of queer domesticity, life under Draconian apartheid rule, and the paradisiacal landscape of Durban with bold, brilliant brushstrokes. As an active figure in the struggle movement, his paintings stand for his deep dedication to the poetic as an act of resistance.