[From the dust jacket.] The aesthetic of abstraction that emerged in European - and particularly French - art during the 1950s and 1960s is receiving renewed critical attention internationally. It is often forgotten that one of South Africa's most celebrated artists of the time, the late Christo Coetzee, was prominent in the French avant-garde. A collection of 49 canvases he painted in London and Paris in this period have recently been brought to South Africa after being stored away by the Parisian art dealer Rodolphe Stadler and by the widow of Coetzee's mentor in London, Anthony Denney.

In bringing these paintings to the public eye for the first time in decades, this book re-evaluates the artist's innovative work from this challenging period of European art. The accompanying essay delves into the forces that shaped Coetzee's art - from his breakthrough years in post war London to the formative influences of Spanish art and culture, and his productive association with French, Italian and Japanese contemporary artists. It illustrates lavishly many of the provocative and imaginative canvases produced by Coetzee between 1954 and 1964m, and includes photographs that contextualise his life and art in these years.