Strauss & co - 20 May 2019, Johannesburg

197 302 Christo Coetzee SOUTH AFRICAN 1929–2000 Mobius Infinity Chain signed and dated 76; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse mixed media on canvas 123 by 122 cm R200 000 – 300 000 Christo Coetzee combines a number of styles in this lively painting. First, he places writhing tube-like forms across the picture plane. These are reminiscent of his tubular period of the late 1960s and early 1970s. One can also clearly distinguish the two black built-up volcano-like shapes, which harp back to the artist’s early 1960s assemblage works in Paris, with the emphasis on the circle as dominant symbol at the time. One can even detect a sense of the slashing of works, and the dramatic occurrence of 1975 when Coetzee took a blade and cut 23 of his paintings to shreds at the opening of one of his exhibitions in Cape Town. He then went on to repair the works in what came to be regarded his best paintings. The present Lot synthesises all these different styles. PROVENANCE Strauss & Co, Cape Town, March 2010, Lot 436.