1st Sep, 2019 9:30
Modern & Contemporary Art
73
Christo Coetzee (South Africa 1929-2000)
Hermetic Still Life: Snake and Bird
oil on board
Artwork date: 1954
Signature details: signed bottom left
oil on board
Artwork date: 1954
Signature details: signed bottom left
(1)
60.5 x 122 cm
Notes:
In 1955, Christo Coetzee presented his first international solo show in London at the Hanover Gallery, which was known for presenting the work of the modern European and British avant-garde artists. The exhibition comprised fifty-one impressive still-life paintings, including the fantastical Hermetic Still-life: Snake and Bird which was painted a year earlier in 1954.Coetzee was 26 years old at the time and had been living in London once again, following his extensive travels in Spain and short return to South Africa in 1953. The young artist first arrived in the city in 1951 to further his art studies at the Slade School of Art. It was a time of social and artistic flux, change and renewal which inspired Coetzee to extend his own creative boundaries. Striving to break away from naturalism, he leaned towards lyrical themes, while drawing extensively from various art historical references like Roman art, Pompeian murals and the imagery of medieval Spain.Hermetic Still-life: Snake and Bird shows Coetzee’s fascination with the primordial and surreal. While citing seventeenth-century Spanish still life painting, his rendering of the scene is uniquely imaginative. The artist suggests a poetic interpretation of the various motifs depicted and gives the title of the work as a key to unlock its cryptic meaning. The composition is foregrounded by the painterly images of a snake and a bird (perhaps a Black-billed Magpie), precariously positioned above an open, ornamental hexagonal box, adorned with peculiar renditions of the infinity sign. The background is dramatically dark and indistinct.In Hermeticism (an ancient occult tradition encompassing alchemy, astrology, and theosophy), the image of a snake is one of the oldest mythological symbols of duality. In many folkloric accounts, birds have been regarded as omens or forecasters of future events. The bird in this context may be symbolic of transcendence and eternal life. It is a bold and provocative work, typifying an important phase in Coetzee’s career that would set him off to become one of South Africa’s most important experimental and internationally regarded artists.
Marelize van Zyl
Notes:
[1] Stevenson, M. & Viljoen, D. (2001). Christo Coetzee. Paintings from London and Paris: 1954-1964. Cape Town: Fernwood Press. p 10 – 13.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 1st Sep, 2019
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