Zetler: king of art
2006-08-31
PAARL’S uncrowned king of art, David Zetler, surrounds himself with art - for his personal happiness, and for the benefit of artists and art lovers alike.
Old friends - or the works of artists who became good friends - smile from the walls of his Hout Street Gallery as well as the walls of his adjoining home.
His father Barnet, a Paarl lawyer, was a great friend of artists. He collected and exhibited their work, and the young David could not help but be stimulated.
His father bought the property at the corner of Main and Hout Street from the De Villiers family in 1955.
The property La Mode, at 270 Main Street, would be transformed into the current Hout Street Gallery, with the oldest shopfront in Paarl.
The rear of the building, Bisby Lodge in Hout Street, was to become the family home.
Barnet died in 1963, and David married his sweetheart from Johannesburg, Gail, in 1967. They moved into Bisby Lodge and started the gallery in 1975.
“There was a tremendous crowd at the opening of this first art gallery in Paarl,” David remembers fondly.
“I was 35 then. And I made many mistakes,” he admits.
“There were works that I did not understand, but one’s horisons expand and you become more adventurous as the years go by.”
Gregoire and Eleanor Esmond-White from Cape Town were among the first artists he exhibited.Another was Pieter van der Westhuizen, who has been a friend on the walls ever since that very first exhibition.
Jan Vermeiren has been in David’s home for 25 years, Ryno Swart for 20, Kaffie Pretorius and Selwin Pekeur for 15 years.
“We built long relationships,” David says. “I have seen such a lot of talent.”
David believes a painting doesn’t just happen; it is planned.
The latest talent which brings forth lyrical appraisal from David is Paarlite Jeffrey Appollis, a student of artist Hannes van Zyl.
“He is only 23, but how he has blossomed. He has a perfect understanding of art!”
Appollis’s work has the place of honour in the latest Winter Gala which opened in the gallery last week. The exhibition of paintings, ceramics, sculpture and glass runs until 30 September.
“A lot of thought goes into the hanging of works, in terms of colour, size and artist,” David explains. “I try to create a homely atmosphere, informal. It might look like an accident, but it is not - it is planned.”
The informality comes naturally, however, in Gail’s adjoining gallery of functional art - with jewellery, Clementina van der Walt’s ceramics, and Carrol Boyes’s pewter.
David not only lives for art, he lives amongst art. Art deco furniture and his beloved oriental ceramics adorn his home.
“All gallery owners are collectors,” he explains. David started collecting glass many years ago, then perfume bottles, Imari, bonzai, but works of art has always been his first love.
He studied under several teachers and today the first painting by David Zetler, dated 1987, hangs in his home.
Although David has every right to be proud of his promotion of the art and artists, David beams with pride not about that achievement, but about his family.
Photographs of the Zetler daughters, Anna (37), a jeweller in Cape Town and Sarah (35), a phsychologist in London, rub shoulders with the famous on his walls.
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