The Original Sharp Street Studio, Yeoville

Title: “The Original Sharp Street Studio, Yeoville”, by Andries Bezuidenhout, oil on canvas, 29.5×41.5cm.

This painting was made for Willem Moller, South African guitarist and sound engineer, who mixed Andries’ solo album “Onplaats” at the beginning of 2020. Willem’s original recording studio was located in Yeoville, Johannesburg. A number of classic South African albums were recorded here, including the Blues Broers’ album “Sharp Street”. Willem was also a member of the famous (or notorious) Gereformeerde Blues Band, which played with the late Johannes Kerkorrel, an important figure in Afrikaans anti-apartheid music from the late-1980s onward. Willem now lives and works in Glencairn, a settlement near Simon’s Town in the Western Cape, but his studio is still called Sharp Street. The painting depicts a typical Yeoville street scene, with an Edwardian cottage, an Art Deco apartment block, and a Jacaranda tree in the background.

Price: Not for sale

Riku en Jackie se lang inrypad

“Riku en Jackie se lang inrypad.”

Title: “Riku en Jackie se lang inrypad”, by Andries Bezuidenhout, oil on canvas, 29.5×41.5cm.

The view from Riku and Jackie Lätti’s house in Strand, Western Cape. The title refers to the two Afrikaans musicians’ “long driveway”. The street dead-ends in the entrance to their house, so when driving up to their house it is almost like driving down a very long driveway. Riku has been assisting Andries with the mixing and arrangements of a new album.

Price: Not for sale.

A painting dedicated to N.P van Wyk Louw

“Karoo-dorp: Winteraand”

Title: “Karoo-dorp: Winteraand”, by Andries Bezuidenhout, oil on canvas, 40.5×40.5cm.

Andries delivered the annual N.P. van Wyk Louw memorial lecture at the University of Johannesburg on 6 September 2018. Along with the lecture, this painting was presented as a gift to the University of Johannesburg. Van Wyk Louw was an Afrikaans-language poet and public intellectual. The title of the lecture was “Utopiese verbeelding en Afrikaans: ʼn Gesprek met T. Dunbar Moodie en N.P. van Wyk Louw” [Utopian Imagination and Afrikaans: A Conversation with T. Dunbar Moodie and N.P. van Wyk Louw]. Dunbar Moodie is one of the most insightful authors on the history of Afrikaner nationalism. The lecture was dedicated to the painter Walter Meyer, who was murdered at the end of 2017. Meyer’s grandfather, Judge Rumpff, who presided over the Treason Trial (1956-1961), is mentioned in the lecture, as well as Rick Turner, a South African philosopher and activist who was assassinated in 1977. The lecture (in Afrikaans) can be downloaded here. The painting depicts the house in Sutherland where Van Wyk Louw grew up.

Salem, Eastern Cape

“Salem, Eastern Cape”

Title: “Salem, Eastern Cape”, by Andries Bezuidenhout, oil on canvas, framed, 40.6×40.6cm

This oil painting was part of an exhibition titled “Vanishing Karoo” (March to April 2019) at the Imibala Gallery in Graaff-Reinet. Andries also opened the exhibition with an address on Karoo landscapes and a musical performance. Salem is one of the oldest settler towns in the Eastern Cape and formed the backdrop to one of South Africa’s most controversial land disputes, which ended up in the Constitutional Court. Two historians, Martin Legassick and Herman Giliomee, supported both sides with expert testimonies on the history of conflicts over land in the area.

Price: Sold.

Corner of my Universe – Exhibition

These oil paintings were part of a group exhibition titled “Hoek van my heelal / Corner of my universe”, at the Tina Skukan Gallery in Pretoria, which ran from 23 September to 17 October 2018. Participating artists were Diek Grobler, Michèle Nigrini, Andries Bezuidenhout, Helena Groenewald and Retha Buitendach. More on the exhibition here.