At the time Cecil Skotnes set out on his career as a professional artist, Egon Guenther – a goldsmith and former gallery director in Germany – immigrated to South Africa. He had impeccable artistic taste, was well informed on contemporary art in Europe and was also highly knowledgeable about African art. He readily recognised talent in others and encouraged and nurtured this not only by acting as a dealer, but by means of animated and dictatorial discussions about art in general that challenged and stimulated his new South African friends and protegés.

Skotnes was introduced to Guenther towards the end of 1954; the meeting proved to be a turning point in the the artist's career. In those years he was a painter and draughtsman and had not considered making hand-printed works. In fact, at the time woodcutting and the other graphic media were virtually unknown to him.

At Guenther's I saw woodcuts at close range for the first time, and he gave me my first set of tools and showed me how to handle them. I also became acquainted with German Expressionism and the great similarities between it and tribal art, though I had developed a stylistic basis long before I became aware of the importance of the tribal art field.

Guenther showed Skotnes woodcuts by several modern German artists, but he sensed that those by Rudolf Scharpf, a relatively unknown artist who had been one of Guenther's proteges in Germany, would be of particular importance to the South African…

Guenther drew Skotnes' attention to the beauty of the blocks from which prints were pulled, and suggested to him that the block could be refined and presented as a work of art in itself. In 1956 Guenther gave him some pieces of parquet flooring and suggested that he should cut designs on them. These modest carvings, intricate black compositions against white backgrounds, were to be the first of the Skotnes 'incised paintings’, although not then identified as such.

Harmsen, Frieda. 1996. In Harmsen, F. (ed.). Cecil Skotnes. Cape Town: South African Breweries. p. 14.

Because of Guenther’s fastidious skill as a printer and his developing multi-colour techniques, Cecil entrusted the printing of many of his works to him, including the portfolios In memoriam Charles Eglington, Baudelaire’s voyage, Ten landscapes and Man’s gold.

Below is a selection of scans from the archive, in which Egon Guenther is mentioned.