Michael Coulson chats with multi talented David Krut

Art Community Profile: David Krut
Michael Coulson chats with multi talented David Krut

One of the more versatile characters on the local art scene is David Krut, a qualified accountant (BCom, CA, Wits) who went to London in 1972 to become a banker but changed course a couple of years later when the financial sector when through one of its regular upheavals.

He was approached for advice by Fernand Haenggi, who wanted to set up an offshoot of his Gallery 21 – once well known in Johannesburg – in London. While he didn’t get directly involved, he learnt a lot about the art market after introducing Haenggi to Dion Friedland, an art collector who for a while had an art gallery at his Dion discount store (today Game) in Wynberg.

Krut was also instrumental in bringing Dan Cornwall-Jones out to run Friedland’s gallery, and regards Cornwall-Jones as his mentor. “He taught me what it is to help collectors. You can only learn about the art market from talking to artists and the highest-level dealers like him, you can’t pick it up from books.”

In 1980 Krut decided to become an art dealer himself. “Art was still affordable in those days,” he recalls. “I used to sell Hockney prints for 100 pounds or so.”

The following year he published his first print, by Joe Tilson, a contemporary of Hockney and Richard Hamilton at the Royal College of Art. While he had no intention of opening a gallery, he saw potential in travelling exhibitions. Appropriately, he started with a Tilson show, which he brought to various venues in SA.

That opened his eyes to the opportunities for contemporary art in SA. In association with Natalie Knight, he brought out a selection of Italian artists in 1983 and Berlin art in 1984. His last import was in 1989, to celebrate 150 years of photography.

Diplomatically, Krut won’t comment on how his relationship with Knight developed, but it’s generally thought that today they don’t
exactly exchange birthday cards.

In 1993 Krut came back to SA for what he thought might well be the last time, to attend his friend the writer and arts critic Robert Greig’s wedding. There he happened to meet actress Grethe Fox, his partner ever since, and though he’s still nominally based in London, his links with SA were reforged unbreakably.

Meanwhile, in the 1980s he’d also started to deal in contemporary art, for which there was no market in SA, so he extended his activities to North America and Australia. In 1985 he held a big Andy Warhol show in Sydney, selling works for $1 000 that now command $90 000. “I wish I’d kept a few for myself,” he says ruefully.

But although he has a space, essentially a print workshop, in Chelsea, the centre of the New York art world (“There are 400 galleries in Chelsea,” he says – he opened his the day before 9/11), as well as being the pioneer of what has developed into Parkwood’s art strip in Johannesburg, Krut regards himself as a publisher, facilitator and educator rather than a gallerist.

In 1999, he learnt that funding was available for books on contemporary SA artists. Krut insisted that this had to be a sustainable series, not just an occasional project, and in theory has been producing three Taxi books a year ever since.

Reality is that artists, writers – who he sees as being as much the beneficiaries of the series as the artists –and designers don’t always meet their deadlines, so the Taxi series numbers 13 to date. He doesn’t see any necessary end. “Taxi books are intended to celebrate artists in mid-career, so by definition new people are becoming eligible subjects all the time.” It may be tough to maintain quality, but on the evidence to date the Taxi books are the most attractive and authoritative series SA has yet produced.

And he’s about to launch a new series of books. Clumsily titled Skill Set: Knowledge Resource & Education Series, it aims to provide instruction in various design disciplines, including graphic, set, fashion and industrial design. The first volume, Graphic design, by Michael MacGarry, is imminent.

His initial space in Parkwood was rented to accommodate Egon Guenther’s old printing press to establish a print workshop. Colbert Mashile and Amos Letsoala – now curator of the Polokwane museum – were among the first to use the facility.

But, like Topsy, it just grew and grew. First, surplus space was used to accommodate a bookshop. Then, another vacant space a couple of doors away was taken on as a dedicated gallery, after its previous tenants, who sold traditional West African art and artifacts, did a midnight flit. And, most recently, Krut also took over the bookshop at the Johannesburg Art Gallery which, he says, doesn’t make money, but is an essential service.

With more or less permanent establishments in London and New York as well as Johannesburg, Krut is uniquely placed as a funnel both to take SA art to the world, and bring international art to SA.

The only question is, where will this protean entrepreneur and art lover break out next.