Christo Coetzee (South African, 1929-2000) Untitled 1960 signed and dated 'christo coetzee/ 1960' and inscribed '120/FT/christo/coetzee/24/4/60' (verso)152.5 x 204 x 20.5cm (60 1/16 x 80 5/16 x 8 1/16in). Footnotes: Educated at The Slade School of Fine Art, Christo Coetzee was a South African artist who was awarded a scholarship in 1959 by the Japanese Government to study in Japan. This was arguably the result of his first exhibition with Rudolph Stadler in Paris a year earlier, where Coetzee was introduced to the influential French art critic Michel Tapie. Tapie in 1957 received a pamphlet from Gutai, a newly formed avant-garde Japanese art group, and immediately became interested in their experimental post-war practice. In September of that year Tapie traveled to Osaka and was so fascinated and impressed by their work he later introduced the Gutai group to leading figures in the art world both in Europe and the US. However it was during Tapie's initial 1957 trip that he met and introduced the Gutai founder Jiro Yoshihari to informal painting. Yoshihara states that he had to select a work for reproduction and happened to pick one by Christo Coetzee. He further comments that 'the use of ping-pong balls covered with paint, and this bizarre technique seemed to indicate a break with what painting used to be in the past'. This unique style which captivated Yoshihara is nonetheless evident in the present lot, with ping-pong balls attached throughout the center-fold of the canvas by wire disguised in heavily applied paint. Crucially it was through Tapie, that Yoshihara and Coetzee were first introduced to one another in Paris 1958 at Galerie Stadler. The two artists quickly struck up a friendship, with Yoshihari visiting Coetzee's studio by the River Seine with fellow artist Hisao Domoto. In Japan, Coetzee was attached to the department of Aesthetics at Kyoto University, living at the student institute in Osaka. As a result, Yoshihara kindly offered Coetzee a studio at his residence where he produced a series of works; an example was sold in these salerooms on 12 September 2018 (lot 38). Coetzee later went on to exhibit twice in Tokyo, and at the beginning of 1960 at the Takashimaya department store in Osaka. The present lot was executed in 1960 soon after Coetzee returned after his scholarship in Japan and undeniably shows evidence of the Gutai Group's heavy influence on Christo. The small and delicate incisions in the upper half of the canvas clearly resemble Gutai group member Shozo Shimamoto's Holes series. Michio Yoshihara's, son of founder Jiro, commonly used sand and this is also evident in the present lot. This is in addition to the heavily applied paint, evidently applied freshly squeezed from the tube or poured directly on the canvas like the work of Kazuo Shiraga. Bibliography Marco Franciolli et al, Gutai: Painting with Time and Space, (Silvana Editoriale, 2010), pp.204-205. Ai Sawai, GUTAI, (Art U, 2015), p.9 Ming Tiampo & Alexandra Munroe, Gutai: Splendid Playground, (Guggenheim, 2013), pp.290-291 Stevenson & Viljoen, Christo Coetzee: Paintings from London and Paris 1954-1964, (Cape Town, 2001) pp.29. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com