Friedrich Zettl was born in Austria in 1954. In the mid-1970s he began to deal with art. Inspired by the literature of the surrealists such as André Breton and Paul Éluard, he came across the works of artists from their environment such as Jean Cocteau and Max Ernst.
In this first phase, he created oil paintings and graphics with a surrealistic touch. Impressionism and then especially Expressionism periods followed.
Since 1979 when Zettl was allowed to study art in China he has dealt intensively with Chinese art and culture, both practically and theoretically. His works have followed Eastern philosophy, with the focus on the reduction to the essentials.