Helen Babette Kapp (17 December 1901 – 13 October 1978) was a British artist. Originally a painter and illustrator, Kapp became a curator and gallery director of some influence.

Biography

Kapp was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in London into an artistic, émigré family, with a German father and an American mother, while her elder brother was the artist Edmond Xavier Kapp. She studied at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

and then the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cr ...

in London before completing her studies in Paris. Working as a painter in both oils and watercolours and as an illustrator and wood engraver, Kapp exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in London, with the

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

, the

Artists' International Association The Artists' International Association (AIA) was an organisation founded in London in 1933 out of discussion among Pearl Binder, Clifford Rowe, Misha Black, James Fitton, James Boswell, James Holland, Edward Ardizzone, Peter Laszlo Peri'Artist ...

and both the

Society of Wood Engravers The Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) is a UK-based artists’ exhibiting society, formed in 1920, one of its founder-members being Eric Gill. It was originally restricted to artist-engravers printing with oil-based inks in a press, distinct from ...

and the

Society of Women Artists The Society of Women Artists (SWA) is a British art body dedicated to celebrating and promoting fine art created by women. It was founded as the Society of Female Artists (SFA) in about 1855, offering women artists the opportunity to exhibit and ...

. Her first solo exhibition was at Nicholson's Gallery in London in 1946 and she also took part in a

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

exhibition in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

in Israel. Kapp provided illustrations for several books for a variety of publishers and also wrote the 1975 volume ''Enjoying Pictures''. In 1951 Kapp was appointed the director of the Wakefield Art Gallery, now the Hepworth Wakefield, and held that post until 1961 when she became the first director of the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

. In running the Wakefield and building the Abbot Hall collection, Kapp became among the first curators to recognise and acquire works by contemporary artists such as

Joan Eardley Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley (18 May 192116 August 1963) was a British artist noted for her portraiture of street children in Glasgow and for her landscapes of the fishing village of Catterline and surroundings on the North-East coast of Scotlan ...

Anne Redpath Anne Redpath (1895–1965) was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still lifes are among her best-known works. Life Redpath's father was a tweed designer in the Scottish Borders. She saw a connection between his use of colour and her own. ...

Sheila Fell Sheila Fell (20 July 1931 – 15 December 1979) was an English artist. She was born at Aspatria, Cumberland in 1931. Although she lived in London for the greater part of her life, she devoted her career to painting the Cumberland landscape. Bi ...

and

Alan Davie James Alan Davie (28 September 1920 – 5 April 2014) was a Scottish painter and musician. Biography Davie was born in Grangemouth, Scotland in 1920, the son of Elizabeth (née Turnbull) and James William Davie, an art teacher and painter who ...

among others. She retired in 1967 to live in

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. Kapp curated the exhibition ''Yorkshire Art 1900–1973'' in Harrogate in 1973.

Books illustrated

* ''Seed of Israel: Tales from the English Bible'', 1927, edited by

Gerald Bullett Gerald William Bullett (30 December 1893 – 3 January 1958) was a British man of letters. He was known as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, critic and poet. He wrote both supernatural fiction and some children's literature. A few of his ...

, published by Howe, * ''The Scandel and Credulities of John Aubrey'', 1931, by John Collier, published by Peter Davies, * ''Take Forty Eggs'', 1938, by Basil Collier & Helen Kapp, published by Gollancz, * ''Fables and Satires'', 1945, by Harold Morland, published by

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...

, * ''Toying with a Fancy'', 1948, by James Laver, published by Hale.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kapp, Helen 1901 births 1978 deaths 20th-century English women artists Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Artists from London British art curators English illustrators People from Hampstead Sibling artists