Christo Coetzee

(South African, 1929-2000)

No.4 Osaka (1959)

Footnotes

Provenance
Property 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".

Bibliography
Stevenson & 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.