Wolf Kibel (Polish, 1903-1938) Garden of Eden
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Notes : Romance and myth surrounds the life of Wolf Kibel, but sadly the hard facts are cruel and unforgiving. Kibel was born near Warsaw and came from a artistic and musical family who had been cantors for generations. His father died when Kibel was only eight and the young child was apprenticed to a pursemaker in an attempt to supplement the family's meagre income.Sadly he was dismissed for day-dreaming and in 1923 he fled to Vienna where he suffered extreme privations; he was half starved and slept in parks with only the bodies of other tramps for warmth. It was these experiences that not only permanently undermined his health but also embued his work with a grim poignancy. The above work showing the first couple at the 'Fall' is alive with pathos. The roots of the tree are highly wrought with tension and the figures, defined in Kible's nervous lines are charged with emotion. The whole being embued with the artist's lyrical colour.Here the true painter speaks. However much the man may be haunted by oppressive emotions, the artist, in the very representation of the moment of Adam's betrayal still produces a work that is leavened with happiness.Kibel died of tuberculosis in Cape Town in 1933.
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