[3] In 1925 Lipshitz met the Russian Jewish sculptor Herbert Vladimir Meyerowitz,[1] who arrived from Berlin and was appointed lecturer at Michaelis School of Fine Art.

Isaac took up a studio with Russel Harvey in the Wasserfall and Hardick building in Church Street among painters George Crosland Robinson and Constance Penstone and sculptor Thackeray Edwards.

His friend Nesto Jacometti also introduced him to the work of a circle of Jewish artists within the École de Paris who would influence Lipshitz greatly: Chaïm Soutine, Jules Pascin, Moise Kisling and Amedeo Modigliani.

During these last two years he lived the life of a Bohemian, frequenting the Café de la Rotonde and the Dôme and gate crashing the annual Beaux Arts Ball.

He installed his studio in Castle Street, with painter Christopher Williams and set about organising his first solo exhibition of sculptures and drawings, which was to take place at the Martin Melck House on 16 May 1932.

That young artists felt compelled to defend Lippy's work was a first sign that they were organising themselves in opposition to establishment figures like Edward Roworth, then president of the South African Society of Arts.

His father was D. C. Boonzaier, the cartoonist and connoisseur, and the family home was frequented by artists like Pieter Wenning, Gwelo Goodman and Moses Kottler; even Bernard Lewis the critic.

This show featured paintings by Boonzaier, Freida Lock, Charles Peers, Enslin du Plessis, Terence McCaw, Alexis Preller, Florence Zerffi, François Krige, Maurice Hughes, Rhoda Kussel, Joyce Ord-Brown, R. J. Pope-Ellis and Graham Young.

Lipshitz formed a working association with painter Cecil Higgs, exhibiting together at 52 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch, in September 1938, in collaboration with René Graetz and Maggie Laubser.

The animosity in art circles came home to Lipshitz when, in August 1939, Bernard Lewis criticised a nude by Higgs at a New Group in the Stellenbosch University Library, giving rise to its removal, over public protest.

Moreover, in November 1940, Edward Roworth, then Director of Michaelis and the South African National Gallery, openly supported Adolf Hitler's suppression of modern art.

[2] In 1932 Lipshitz had become friends with Expressionist painter Wolf Kibel and they leased premises at 18 Roeland Street, Cape Town, which they restored and named Palm Studios.

Financial problems eventually led to their eviction in May 1937, after which they took up space in Madeira House in Stal Plein, with Freida Lock, John Wright and Hetta Crouse.

[7] Lipshitz left South Africa in May 1947, taking up a studio belonging to Lady Nicholson (daughter of Sir Lionel Phillips) in Glebe Place, Chelsea, London.

Van Essche, Lipshitz, Cecil Higgs, John Dronsfield, Irma Stern, Jean Welz, Alexis Preller and Walter Battiss were invited to participate in the Art Club exhibitions in Turin and Rome in early 1949.

A committee convened by Minister of Education, Arts and Science, C. R. Swart and consisting of John Paris, Director of the South African National Gallery, Dr. J. W. von Moltke of the Michaelis School and Prof. F. E. J. Malberbe of Stellenbosch University selected Van Essche, Lipshitz, Higgs, Dronsfield, Stern, Maud Sumner and sculptor Elsa Dziomba to represent the country at the Biennale.

His works were acquired by other major collection in Southern Africa, and in June 1964, he was awarded the medal for sculpture by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, followed in October 1964 by an Associate Professorship at Michaelis.