Notes

‘The human head, which is built around the skull, is seen as the seat of all human faculties, the finest as well as the most wicked. The centre of [wo/]man’s talent, the centre of [wo/]man’s achievement. Yet, when stripped of its appendages, the skull is a symbol of death, destruction, a symbol of danger. Here is a contradiction. Why? It becomes diametrically opposed, the exact opposite pole of what it is in life.’¹

‘The one skull appears to be tumbled on its back by the other. A series of differently shaped ‘humps’ and ‘hollows’ within each skull form are fashioned to create a sense of force, inside the modelled form, which apparently thrusts the surface into different undulations. It differs from traditional closed core casts, which suggest a solid form. Here the form is opened on at least one side, indicating that there is, in fact, no interior substance other than a void. While certain angles would suggest a solid form, a crack or dislodgement of a plane would arrest the illusion, revealing the hollowness of the form … The double skull turned out to be more like two forms in a sort of dialogue, each with their own inner preoccupations, while at the same time involved with their emotional relationship with each other. While the single skull sculptures tend to be preoccupied with themselves and aggression is turned outwards reflecting an internal conflict.’²

1. Neels Coetzee (1990) quoted in ‘Images in Bronze: A Commentary of the Sculpture of Neels Coetzee’, in Graham Saayman (ed) Modern South Africa in Search of a Soul: Jungian Perspectives on the Wilderness Within. Boston: Sigo Press, page 242.

2. Neels Coetzee (1985) The Skull: Formal and Iconographical Sculptural Derivations. Unpublished Master’s Dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, page 38.

Exhibited

Literature

Afrox (1978) Neels Coetzee Afrox Metalart Guest Artist, Johannesburg: Afrox. Illustrated in colour on page 13.

Koulla Xinisteris (2015) Neels Coetzee: Crucible, Johannesburg: Circa. Illustrated in colour on page 41.