talk: looking into kibel
art & inner life
14 May 2026 | 11am
Drawing on her longstanding research into early twentieth century South African art, Tietze will offer a focused reflection on the work of Wolf Kibel (1903–1938), exploring the psychological and spiritual dimensions that shape his visual language. Her lecture considers Kibel’s practice not only in formal terms, but as an expression of inner life, shaped by displacement, introspection, and artistic exchange.
This talk is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Wolf Kibel Lippy Lipshitz, Palm Studios, currently on view at the South African Jewish Museum. The exhibition revisits the remarkable collaboration between Kibel and Lippy Lipshitz in 1930s Cape Town, a period that produced an extraordinary body of work and marked a significant moment in the development of modern South African art.
Guests will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition after the talk.
Art historian Anna Tietze taught for many years at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and is currently an Honorary Research Associate of UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. In addition to her university role, she has enjoyed a long association with the Iziko South African National Gallery, researching and curating exhibitions of some of the gallery’s major early twentieth-century gift collections. She has published widely on art and art institutions and in 2017 published the award-winning A History of the Iziko South African National Gallery: Reflections on Art and National Identity (UCT Press).