Homage to Guernica

This painting titled, Homage to Guernica is by the South African artist Christo Coetzee (1929-2000). Harlequins, Homage to Guernica is a painting of five clown-like figures and a friendly looking hellhound (a supernatural black dog from folklore) that appears to dance across this large Canvas painting. The work pays homage to the vast painting Guernica (1937) by the Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso which was created in the wake of the 1937 fascist bombing of the town Guernica. This work became a defining image of the horror and atrocities of war. Coetzee saw Picasso's work in 1961 with his exhibition at the Modern Museum of Art in New York. Inspired by Picasso, Coetzee painted this as homage when the work was returned to Spain in 1981. Harlequins was only completed in 1987 after which he donated it to the University of Pretoria due to the large size of it. Short biography. The Johannesburg born artist, Christo Coetzee pursued his art studies at the Slade School of Art in London as a complementary tuition exercise to his fine art degree qualification acquired from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg South Africa. Most of Coetzee's works are mainly colourful, stylized figurative images and still lifes. After completing his studies he moved to Europe on a Government Travelling Scholarship and become part of the Stadler Stable in Paris before moving to Finestrat in Spain. Later, Coetzee went to Japan where he was invited to join the Gutai Group, the first radical Art Group in post-war Japan. It was in Japan that Coetzee developed his later art style that ultimately classified him as South Africa's leading and prominent avant-garde artists. Coetzee received international recognition for his contribution to the avant-garde art movements known as Art Informel, Assemblage and Neo-Baroque in Paris, Spain and Japan during the 1950s and 1960s, an art style he perfected. He passed away at the age of 71 in 2000 in Tulbagh in the Cape and bequeathed his entire home and collection to the University of Pretoria.