Notes

Christo Coetzee was based in Paris from 1956 to 1961. It was there that he met members of the Gutai group, the most influential artistic movement in post-war Japan and among the most important international avant-garde movements of the 1950s and ‘60s. 'Gutai', meaning 'embodiment', derives from the Japanese words for 'tool' and 'body'. During a year spent in Japan in 1959 he explored shared interests in the performative aspects of art. The influence of Japanese calligraphy is also evident in the increasing elegance of his lines and brushwork.