Cyril Coetzee
Senior Lecturer of Art History & Esoteric Science
Cyril Coetzee is a portrait artist and has painted both informal and commissioned portraits throughout his career, including the portrait of Nelson Mandela, which was used for the international stamp commemorating Mandela’s 90th birthday. He has served as a Fine Art lecturer at Port Elizabeth Technikon, as an Art History lecturer at University of the Witwatersrand and has been invited to give various lectures on Art History and on his own work in South Africa, England, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. His works are included in various public and private collections worldwide, including the Royal Ontario Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Standard Bank in London and the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In 1996 he was commissioned by the University of the Witwatersrand to paint a 28 square meter canvas for the William Cullen Library, an internationally renowned archive, for the 75th celebrations of the University, which was unveiled by Judge Goldstone in 1999. Awards won include the: Helgaard Steyn Award (2003) and the Vita Art Award (1993). Coetzee has exhibited internationally and was invited to hold solo retrospective exhibitions at the University of South Africa Gallery, Pretoria, and the Getrude Posel Gallery at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1993.
