Colour dynamics

From the late 1970s Coetzee has been interested in Goethe's Colour Theory, and his Metamorphosis of Plants. Through the centuries and in a variety of ways, Goethe's approach to colour has been an inspiration to many artists and thinkers as different from each other as Turner, Kandinsky and Steiner. In 1993 Coetzee wrote that Goethe's colour theory "places emphasis on the qualitative as well as on the physical properties of colour. Colour is viewed in terms of archetypical polarities, with yellow the colour closest to light and blue closest to darkness."

Coetzee has researched Rudolf Steiner's 'extensions' of Goethe's ideas and their application to painting, a study of which has given rise to a diversity of paintings in varying idioms and media (e.g. Tree of Life, 1995; Kafka, 1983; Tiananmen Square, 1995).

Baptism oil on canvas, 90 x 74 cm, 1985, Private Collection, Santa Barbara, USA enlarge		Death and the Maiden 2 watercolour, 30 x 22 cm, 1995, Collection of the Artist enlarge
Death and the Maiden watercolour, 18 cm, 1995, Collection of the Artist enlarge		The dew of heaven watercolour, 20 x 15 cm, 1996, Private Collection, Johannesburg enlarge
Enoch oil on canvas, 130 x 120 cm, 1985, Collection of the Artist enlarge		Tree of life watercolour, 35 x 24 cm, 1995, Private Collection, Germany enlarge
Kafka watercolour, 54 x 40 cm, 1983, Private Collection, Johannesburg enlarge		Tianamen square oil on canvas, 70 x 54 cm, 1997, Private Collection, Brussels enlarge
Threnody pastel on paper, 80 x 65 cm, 1997, Collection of the Artist enlarge		North African scene watercolour, 47 x 33 cm, 1994, Private Collection, Johannesburg enlarge
Gift oil on paper, 100 x 80 cm, 2000, Collection of the Artist enlarge		Pyramid oil on board, 40 x 36 cm, 1985, Private Collection, Johannesburg enlarge
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