Site Loader
Rock Street, San Francisco
  • Current Language:
  • fr
  • Select Language:

Christo Coetzee (1929-2000)


Christo Coetzee (South African, 1929-2000)
Still life of a fish signed 'Christo Coetzee' (lower left)oil on board60.5 x 122cm (23 13/16 x 48 1/16in).
Provenance Purchased by current owner from Hanover Gallery, 1955.Private collection, UK. Exhibited London, Hanover Gallery, Christo Coetzee solo exhibition , 1955. Catalogue number 6.LiteratureM. Gowling, 'The Influence of Anthony Denney', Art and Industry, (1956), illustrated.Stevenson & Viljoen, Christo Coetzee: Paintings from London and Paris 1954-1964, (Cape Town, 2001), illustrated p.11.On completing his Fine Arts degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1951, Christo Coetzee hosted an exhibition of his work in Cape Town. The show was critically acclaimed, John Paris, then the director of the South African National Gallery, wrote:(Coetzee) is a born painter but has been well taught...what happens next will depend upon the person he becomes in contact with the wider world. The day after this exhibition opens he leaves for a few years 'looking' and further study in Europe...We shall watch with interest...I believe, if he has the staying power, (he could) become a very important figure indeed in the history of art in South Africa (John Paris, Christo Coetzee, Cape Town, 1951). Following this exhibition, Coetzee moved to London having received a post-graduate scholarship to the Slade School of Art. Here, the artist was introduced to the photographer and designer, Anthony Denney. Denney would become an important collector and a life-long mentor. During the 1950s, Denney regularly featured Coetzee's work in his interior design projects, juxtaposing his abstract paintings with antiques and decorative works of art. He particularly admired Coetzee's surreal still lifes: The unexpected contradiction of a sharp note of colour, a sudden change of scale and that mysterious rapport between objects of a totally dissimilar which defies analysis (A. Denney, 'Art, antiques and art nouveau', Vogue, 15.5.1965, p.70).The current lot is one of a series of still lifes the artist painted for his first solo exhibition at the Hanover Gallery, London, in 1955. The show was arranged by Denney and opened by Loelia, Duchess of Westminster. The fifty-one paintings exhibited were well received. A reviewer for the publication, Time and Tide, praised Coetzee's inventiveness and unusual sense of the luscious possibilities of paint. Twelve of the still lifes were sold before the opening night.BibliographyStevenson & Viljoen, Christo Coetzee: Paintings from London and Paris 1954-1964, (Cape Town, 2001), pp.8-13.
Christo Coetzee (South African, 1929-2000)
No.4 Osaka (1959) signed, inscribed and dated (verso)mixed media on canvas65.5 x 100cm (25 13/16 x 39 3/8in).
ProvenanceProperty of a Massachusetts gentleman.Coetzee studied fine art at the University of Witwatersrand between 1946 and 1950. His was a particularly talented intake that included the likes of Larry Scully, Cecil Skotnes, Gordon Vorster and Nel Erasmus. These young artists gravitated to one another, and soon became known as the 'Wits group'. Following his graduation from Wits, Coetzee was awarded a scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art in London, under the eminent Professor William Coldstream.The artist's wanderlust would lead him to accept commissions in Italy and Paris in the years 1956 to 1959. In February of that year, he was awarded a bursary from the Japanese government to study for two years in Osaka and Tokyo. On his arrival, he was connected with the Gutai group of artists by a professor at Kyoto University, J. Ijimi. Coetzee quickly formed a close relationship with the founder of the group, Jiro Yoshihara, and spent the next 11 months working with the avant garde collective.The relationship resulted in two successful exhibitions. The first was held in Tokyo in August 1959 at the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art and Ohara Hall. The second took place the following year at the Takashimaya Department Store in Osaka. The structure and form of Coetzee's work evolved as a direct result of working in close proximity to the Gutai group. Yoshihara remarked his work started with an elaborate shopping expedition, purchasing ping-pong balls, aluminum tubes, canvas, paint etc. This is nonetheless evident in the present lot, where there are suspect ping-pong balls covered in thick heavy layers of paint and other unknown materials. Yoshihara goes on to praise Coetzee by stating that he was rapidly covering territory which has never been opened up by others...He is a pioneer and I offer him my unlimited admiration.BibliographyStevenson & Viljeon, Christo Coetzee: Paintings from London and Paris 1954-1964, (Cape Town, 2001) pp.29. Marco Franciolli et al, Gutai: Painting with Time and Space, (Silvana Editoriale, 2010), pp.204-205.