Anna Tietze

Honorary Research Associate

Anna Tietze is a cultural and art historian with an interest in past and present conceptions of art, academic art history and the art museum. She has degrees in Philosophy, French and Art History and Theory from the universities of Oxford and Essex. At UCT she has taught in the departments of Cultural History, History of Art, Historical Studies and Michaelis School of Fine Art. She has had extensive curatorial experience with the Iziko South African National Gallery, where she has mounted major retrospectives on the gift collections of early benefactors including Alfred de Pass and Sir A. Bailey. Her curatorial and published work in this field has been driven by an interest in the early history of the South African National Gallery and by a desire to draw attention to its important founding collections. She is a research associate of Iziko South African National Gallery.

Publications

Books and Catalogues

  • Tietze, A. 1995. The Alfred de Pass Presentation to the South African National Gallery, South African National Gallery.
  • Proud, H. and Tietze, A. 1999. The Sir Edmund and Lady Davis Presentation: a Gift of British Art to South Africa, South African National Gallery.
  • Tietze, A. 2001. The Sir Abe Bailey Bequest: a Reappraisal, Iziko Museums of Cape Town.
  • Tietze, A. 2008. The Abe Bailey Collection in the South African National Gallery, Abe Bailey Trust.
  • Tietze, A. 2017: A History of the Iziko South African National Gallery: Reflections on art and national identity, UCT Press.

Chapters and Essays in Books

  • Tietze, A. 2002. The Language Myth and Western Art. In R. Harris, The Language Myth in Western Culture, Curzon.
  • Tietze, A. 2008. What Makes Sense? In F. Langerman, The Knowledge Chambers, UCT.
  • Tietze, A. 2016. Of Beasts and Men, in J. Alexander, Photo-Book: Photomontages 1981-1995, Stevenson.
  • Tietze, A. 2017. Antique Casts for a Colonial Gallery: the Beit Bequest of Classical Statuary to Cape Town, in G. Parker (ed), South Africa, Greece, Rome: Classical Confrontations, Cambridge University Press.  

Selected Journal Articles

  • Tietze, A. 1996. Psychology and Art Writing: the Problems of their Relationship in Richard Wollheim’s ‘Painting as an Art’. South African Journal of Art and Architectural History, 6.
  • Tietze, A. 1998. Classical Casts and Colonial Galleries: the Life and Afterlife of the 1908 Beit Gift to the South African National Gallery. South African Historical Journal, 39.
  • Tietze, A. 2007. Collecting for the Colonies. Kronos, November.
  • Tietze, A. 2010. The Problem of Originality and Value in the Lady Michaelis Gifts to the South African National Gallery, South African Journal of Art History, 25, 2.
  • Tietze, A. 2011. Artistically or Historically Important? The Reception of the Abe Bailey Sporting Art Collection in South Africa, Journal of the History of Collections, 23, 1
  • Tietze, A. and Botha, N. 2014. Civilising the Cape: Public Art Exhibitions and Cape Visual Culture, 1851-1910, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40, 6, December.
  • Tietze, A. 2014. ‘The Attainment of a True Eye and a Correct Hand’: Drawing, Art Training Institutions and Theories of Art Education in Cape Town, 1860-1926, de arte, 89.
  • Tietze, A. 2015. The Art of Design: Curriculum Policy and the Fine Art vs Design Debate at Michaelis School of Fine Art, 1925-1972, de arte, 91.
  • Tietze, A. 2017. Freedom through art: educational policy and practice at Michaelis School of Fine Art, 1971-89, de arte, 54, 2-3.
  • Tietze, A. 2017. Review of D. Magaziner, The Art of Life in South Africa (UKZN Press, 2017), Kronos: Southern African Histories, November.
  • Tietze, A. 2022. Controversial Collections: The Michaelis Gifts to South Africa, Journal of the History of Collections, 34, 3, October.

Exhibition Curatorship

  • 1995. The Alfred de Pass Presentation to the South African National Gallery, South African National Gallery.
  • 1999. H. Proud and A. Tietze. The Sir Edmund and Lady Davis Presentation: a Gift of British Art to South Africa, South African National Gallery.
  • 2001. The Sir Abe Bailey Bequest: a Reappraisal, Iziko South African National Gallery.
  • 2008. The Abe Bailey Collection in the South African National Gallery, Iziko South African National Gallery.