Artists do battle (again) with the Moustache Gallery

Caitlin Ross

Questions over the running of the Moustache Gallery in Stellenbosch have again been raised after a painting by local artist Gavin du Plessis was found damaged and discarded on the side of a farm road in October.
The damaged painting, a 92cm x 92cm oil on canvas titled Cape Town ’73, is a hyper-realist work which formed part of du Plessis’s first solo series in 1973.
It was found by a farm labourer at the Nooitgedacht Estate who noticed it had a price tag and the artist’s name on the back. Estate chef Maryke Reuvers said she managed to track du Plessis down by Googling his name.
Du Plessis said he was alarmed when he got the news, as he had been told by Moustache Gallery owner Laurens Barnard that his painting had been “packaged and
sent to a buyer in Germany”.
“I was not aware that Stellenbosch was in the Bundesrepubliek,” said
du Plessis. He said he had been paid the agreed-upon sum of R15 000 by Barnard, but nonetheless felt “shocked, insulted and hugely disappointed”.
Barnard has paid him for the painting but he nonetheless made out an affidavit stating: “As far back as November 2007 Mr. Laurens Barnard, owner of Moustache Gallery, informed me he had packed and sent off the artwork to a ‘buyer in Germany’.”
Barnard said that he was awaiting confirmation of payment from the German buyer and that this is the first he’d heard of the painting being missing. He said some paintings that he had been storing in his house in Somerset West were transported to a storeroom on the same road as the one on which du Plessis’s work was discovered.
“It could be that it fell off…maybe it was stolen.”
Capt. JF Brits, in charge of the investigation, said he has been on leave and has thus not had time to get started on the case.
But du Plessis is not the only artist involved with the gallery who is “mystified” by missing works or money, an issue that was reported on by the SA Art Times in June 2008.
Durban-based artist Julia Forman said at Barnard’s request she had sent two acrylic paintings to an auction in 2006.
Barnard allegedly contacted her immediately after the auction to inform her that one piece was sold for R2 500 and the other would be sent back to her.
“There was a point when I did get hold of him, and it seemed he was under pressure from a number of artists because he was committed to returning the work,” said Forman.
But she said subsequent attempts to get both her painting and money from Barnard have been unsuccessful.
Painter and multi-media sculptor Nico Eilers said after the same auction he had to threaten Barnard with legal action before Barnard agreed to a meeting at the gallery, at which, Eilers said, he failed to arrive. He said a woman at the gallery handed him some of his works, but one of his sculptures was still missing. Barnard evaded directly answering questions on the missing works, saying only that “most” of his artists have been paid and that he has “done a lot more for artists in this country than other people, putting their work in my gallery”.
“Lots of people owe me money but you don’t see me running to the papers,” he said.