Once known as First Month, Snow Month, Frosty Month, Wolf Month, the Roman god Janus, the guardian of gates and doors, is the name we now give to this time of year. January. Two-faced Janus looked back and looked forward, and artist Christo Coetzee s Janus looks both ways. It invites us to think about past and future, about where we ve been and where we re heading. No one ever regarded the first of January with indifference, says Charles Lamb and this time round, after 2020, 2021 hasn t come quickly enough.
Born in Johannesburg, 1929, Coetzee s father turned from farming to mining, then to building and though his father died when Coetzee was 10, it was his father s talent for drawing construction plans that influenced his son s career. At university Coetzee studied fine art. In 1951, the year he graduated, his first solo show was opened by South African s National Gallery director.