DAVID KAPP
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1953: Born on January 3 in New York City to June Felton Kapp and Ira Kapp. He is the second of three children. His mother is a daughter of Joseph and Sophie Felton, organic chemists and industrialists. His father is an engineer and organic chemist.
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1963: Enters Barnard School for Boys in Riverdale, New York. 1964: Travels to Europe with family. Visits all the major museums in Scotland, England, France, Italy, Spain and Israel as well as the ancient sites in the Middle East. 1965: Sees the Robert Motherwell retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and starts painting black and white abstractions based on Motherwell and Kline. He is given the 4th floor attic in his parents house as a studio. |
1966: Continues painting abstractions and through his interest in New York School painting he is led to Surrealism and Cubism. He is given a section of an old wagon house on the family compound in Hunterdon County, New Jersey as a summer studio. Through his parents, whose friends include artists and writers, he meets Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason who encourage the young painter.
1967: Enters Walden School in Manhattan and begins painting figuratively, strongly influenced by Bay Area Figuration: Diebenkorn, Park and Bischoff. Attends the Museums and galleries in the city constantly, on his way home from school and in his spare time.
1970: Graduates from Walden and is admitted to Windham College in Putney, Vermont.
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1971-1973: Attends sculpture classes given by Charles Ginnever and Peter Forakis. These artists, formerly associated with the Park Place Group in New York City, introduce him to Carl Andre, Lawrence Weiner, and Robert Barry, who have come to Windham to lecture and build site specific pieces. Assists Ginnever in fabrication of large scale outdoor sculptures and installations in New York City. He is given a studio for three years in the Art Shop, the vast, off campus sculpture building. Paints large scale, geometric abstractions informed by Minimalism and the Vermont environment. |
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1974: Graduates from Windham College with a B.F.A. Degree. That summer he drives to Texas to see Robert Smithson's Amarillo Ramp, and to Salt Lake City, Utah, to see Spiral Jetty. He returns to the East Coast through Mesa Verde National Park in the fall and that winter he travels through Italy spending most of his time in Arezzo and Padua.
1975-1976: Enters Queens College Graduate Painting Department as an M.F.A. candidate. Studies painting with Louis Finkelstein and Contemporary Criticism with Robert Pincus-Witten. Finkelstein brings to his attention the work of Albert Marquet as well as his own theory of pictorial movement into deep space carrying a powerful, emotional charge. He also takes classes in the Graduate Art History Department with Dr. Lotte Brand Philip, a former student of Panofsky's and noted Jan Van Eyck scholar. He studies Early Netherlandish Painting with Dr. Philip, concentrating on the secular altarpieces of Hieronymous Bosch. Lives in Long Island City, Queens, and paints geometric cityscapes based on the outlying areas of Queens and Brooklyn.
1977: Graduates from Queens College with an M.F.A. Degree. Moves to Manhattan and rents a studio at 462 Greenwich St., in Tribeca. In the summer he travels through Mexico and visits Palenque and the museums of Pre-Columbian art in Mexico City.
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1978: Moves to Manhattan Ave., in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and rents a studio at 249 Huron St., above a foundry. Executes a group of six and seven feet square cityscapes, based on North Brooklyn that combine the influences of New York School Painting and the School of Paris. In the summer he again travels through Mexico, this time concentrating on the Valley of Mexico and the Pacific Coast. |
1979: Awarded Hassam Purchase Prize from The American Academy and National Institute for Arts and Letters. Travels to Portugal and the Algarve.
1980: Moves studio to 252 Green St., in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The studio has no natural light. Makes studies at night of Greenpoint, Long Island City and environs. This habit of drawing and nocturnal observation will sustain his painting for the next decade.
1981: Exhibits ten urban nocturnes at The Humanities Gallery of Long Island University in Brooklyn. That summer he travels to England, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
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1982: Meets Cecily Kahn at the opening of Avenues of Expression at the Arsenal Annex in Central Park. She is a painter and printmaker who has been living in Rome, Italy, and they will not see each other again for more than a year. Receives CAPS Fellowship in Painting and exhibits at the Richard Hines Gallery in Seattle, Washington and in Brooklyn Paperworks, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. 1983: Meets Carl Apfelschnitt and is introduced to the Olsen Gallery and its circle of friends. Exhibits at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussells, Belgium and Solo show at Olsen Gallery, New York. |
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1984: Solo show at Manhattan Art, New York City.
1985: Paints Oncoming Car. Solo show at Manhattan Art and Christian Cheneau Gallery in Paris, France. He receives the Rosenthal Foundation Award for Painting at The American Academy and National Institute for Arts and Letters. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquires the drawing Lincoln Tunnel.
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1986: Marries Cecily Kahn and the couple move to a top floor loft at Canal St. and Broadway in Manhattan. Exhibits Oncoming Car in Life in the Big City at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. The Museum acquires Oncoming Car. 1987: The change of studios and environment affect a transitional period in his work that will last through 1993. Despite the continued focus on urban subject matter and the automobile, the light in his paintings will change from nocturnal to diurnal. Solo show at Anne Plumb Gallery, New York. Travels to Venice, Italy with Cecily Kahn. |
1988: Makes repeated trips to the Long Island Expressway overpasses in Maspeth, Queens that result in the Express paintings of 1988-90. Solo shows at Alpha Gallery, Boston; Watson Gallery, Houston, Texas; and Feigenson-Preston Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan. In the fall, he joins David Beitzel Gallery, New York. On March 21 his daughter, Tamill Mason Kapp, is born.
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1989: Exhibits in Nocturnes at Alpha Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, and in Drive at the BMW Gallery, New York. BMW acquires Express, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquires Colossus. The family now begins summering in Friendship, Maine. |
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1990: His son, Arthur Lucas Kapp, is born on February 4. Paints final nocturnes from drawings made during early morning hours from above the Manhattan Bridge Plaza at the east end of Canal Street. Exhibits works on paper in The Art of Drawing at The Lehman College Art Gallery, New York.
1991: Exhibits in The Art of This Century at The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and in The Technological Muse at The Katonah Museum of Art. Solo show at David Beitzel Gallery, New York.
1992: Exhibits in New York Realities: Contemporary Portraits of New York at The Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Fairfield University.
1993: Paints Light from the East, his first outsize painting using full daylight. Two Editions of lithographs, The Hill and Merge are published by Solo Press.
1994: Shows in New York, New York at The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Museum acquires Ascending.
1995: Figures begin to appear more prominently, resulting in such paintings as Summer, 1996, and Crossing the Grid, 1998. Solo show at Marita Gilliam Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina.
1996: Solo shows at Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica, California, and David Beitzel Gallery, New York. Exhibits in Graphics From Solo Impressions at The Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
1997: Solo show at Marita Gilliam Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina.
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1998: Returns to Mexico with his family to the Yucatan Peninsula concentrating on the archeological sites of Tulúm, Cobá, and Chichén Itzá. Solo show at David Beitzel Gallery, New York, and Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica, California. 1999: Travels with family to East Africa. Shows in New New York Views at The Museum of the City of New York. Museum acquires Coming Out of the Subway, 1999. 2000: Exhibits in Beyond the Mountains, curated by Michael Klein, which travels to six museums. Travels with family to Guatemala. Stays in Antigua, then travels north to Santa Cruz del Quiché and the site of Utatlán, and finally to El Petén and the ruins of Tikal. |
AWARDS
American Academy & National Institute of Arts & Letters, 1994
American Academy & National Institute of Arts & Letters, 1985
Rosenthal Foundation Award, 1985
CAPS Fellowship in Painting, 1982
Hassam Purchase Prize, 1979
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Ruth Badchofner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, February-March, 1999
David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, September-October, 1998
Marita Gilliam Gallery, Raleigh, NC, April 4-May 16, 1997
Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, October-November, 1996
David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, March-April, 1996
Marita Gilliam Gallery, Raleigh, NC, April-May, 1995
Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, May-June, 1994
David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, March-April, 1994
David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, September-October, 1991
Feigenson/Preston Gallery, Birmingham, MI, September, 1991
Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, February, 1991
David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, May, 1989
Feigenson/Preston Gallery, Birmingham, MI, December, 1988
Watson Gallery, Houston, TX, November, 1988
Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, 1988
Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY, 1987
Anne Plumb Gallery, New York, NY, 1986
Galerie Christian Cheneau, Paris, France, 1985
Manhattan Art, New York, NY, 1985
Manhattan Art, New York, NY, 1984
Olsen Gallery, New York, NY, 1983
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
"Beyond the Mountains: The Contemporary American Landscape," Pamela Auchincloss Projects Space and Management Services, New York, NY. Travels to: Newcomb Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, December 1, 1999 - February 13, 2000; Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI, February 26 - April 6, 2000; Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, Florida, May 27 - August 6, 2000; Boise Art Museum, Boise, Idaho, August 12 - October 22, 2000; Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, November 18, 2000 - January, 14, 2001; The Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT, February 9 - March 23, 2001
"Summer Group Exhibition," David Bietzel Gallery, New York, NY, July 8 - August 20, 1999
"New New York Views," The Museum of the City of New York, May 22 - September 5, 1999
"In Passing," Inman Gallery, Houston, TX, November 1997-January 1998
"All In A Family," The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, 1997
"Working Sources: The Painter and the Photographic Image," Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, March 8-April 2, 1997
"Graphics from Solo Impressions," Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, May 1-June 16, 1996
"In Motion," Ruth Bachofner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, March 1995
"The City: New York Visions 1900-1995," ACA Galleries, New York, NY, February-March 1995
"New York, New York: Recent Cityscapes," North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, October 1994-February 1995
"American Academy of Arts and Letters 46th Annual Purchase Exhibition," American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, November 7-December 4, 1994
"Prints from Solo Impression, Inc., New York," The College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, OH, August-October 1994
"Paintings from New York," Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR, April 1-May 1, 1993
"1992 Art on Paper," Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, October-February 1993
"Urban Beauties," Kornbluth Gallery, Fairlawn, NJ, October-November 1992
"Among Family," Associated American Artists, New York NY, July-September 1992
"Paper Houses," David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, July-August 1992
"New York Realities: Contemporary Portraits of New York," Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, March-May 1992
"The Contemporary American Landscape," Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL, December 1991-January 1992
"Urban Re-Collection," Haenah-Kent Gallery, New York, NY, October 1991
"Traffic Jam: The Automobile in Art," New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ, September-October 1991
"Motion as Metaphor: The Automobile in Art," Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, Virginia Beach, VA, April 13-June 16, 1991, curated by Sue Scott
"The Art of This Century," Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, March-June 1991
"The Technological Muse," Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY, November-February 1991
"The Art of Drawing," Lehman College Art Gallery, New York, NY, September-November 1990
"Horizons," Pfizer, Inc., New York, NY, Fall, 1990
"Direct Response: Contemporary Landscape Painting," Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, April-July, 1989
"Nocturnes," Alpha Gallery, Boston, MA, January 1989
"Art of the Eighties from the Collection of Chemical Bank," Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, January-April 1989
"Drive: Seven Artists," BMW Gallery, New York, NY, October 1988-March 1989. "A Painter's Brooklyn," Pratt Manhattan Gallery, Puck Building, New York, NY, January-February 1989
"Landscape Anthology," Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York, NY, September 1988
"Transcendent," David Beitzel Gallery, New York, NY, September 1988
"Decay of the Urban Landscape," Jayne Baum Gallery, New York, NY, October, 1987
"Life in the Big City," Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, 1986
"The Brooklyn Landscape," Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 1985
"Annual Awards Exhibition," American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY, 1985
"City Lights," Dart Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1984
"Drawings," Barbara Toll Fine Art, New York, NY, 1984
Group Show, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium, 1983
"In Honor of the Brooklyn Bridge," David Findlay Gallery, New York, NY, 1983
"Brooklyn Paperworks," The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 1982
"30 New York Painters," Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY, 1982
"City/Sight," The Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 1982
"The First 17 Years," Queens College, New York, NY, 1982
Group Show, Richard Hines Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1982
"Avenues of Expression," The Arsenal Annex, New York, NY, 1982
"New Talent," A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, NY, 1980
"Hassam Purchase Fund Exhibition," American Academy & National Institute of Arts & Letters, New York, NY, 1979
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jonathan Goodman. "David Kapp at David Beitzel Gallery," Art in America, March, 1999. pps. 119-120 (illustration)
Joel Silverstein. "David Kapp at David Beitzel Gallery," Cover Magazine, January, 1999. 46. pp. (illustration)
Ken Johnson. "David Kapp at David Beitzel Gallery," The New York Times, p. E38 Friday, October 9, 1998
Mark Stevens. "Talent: David Kapp at David Beitzel Gallery," New York, October 5, 1998
Kate Dobbs Ariail. "City Streets," The Independent Weekly, Raleigh, NC April, 9-15, 1997, p. 24
Blue Greenberg. "David Kapp," The Herald Sun Preview Raleigh, NC, April 25, 1997, p. 4
William Zimmer. "Complex Linkages and Contrasts," The New York Times, March 23, 1997
Robert Edelman. "Traffic Jam Uses the Grid as a Departure Point," Cover Magazine, October 1996
"A Skewed Look at the City," Raleigh News & Observer, May 5, 1995
Pepe Carmel, "The City," The New York Times, March 24, 1995
Margaret Moorman, "David Kapp," ARTnews, October 1994
Joanne Silver, "Painter Captures a City in Motion," Boston Herald, May 20, 1994, p. S18
Phyllis A.S. Boros, "Fairfield University Exhibition Reflects Diversity of New York City," The Bridgeport Post, March 1992
Karin Niesyn, "Urban Realities," Fairfield County Advocate, April 2-April 8, 1992
Stephen Westfall, "David Kapp," Art in America, January 1992, Vol. 80, No. 1, p. 113-114
Carol Kino, "David Kapp," Art & Antiques, January 1992, Vol. IX, No. I, p. 87
Peter Ballamy. "The Artist's Project, Portraits of the Real Art World/New York Artists 1981-1990," 1991, In Publishing
Peggy Cyphers, "David Kapp," Arts, December 1991, Vol. 66, No. 4, p. 79
Eileen Watkins, "Art," The Star-Ledger, October 11, 1991, p. 49
Vivien Raynor, "Seeing Beauty or Problems," The New York Times, October 6, 1991, p. 14
Edith Newhall, "Galleries," New York Magazine, September 23, 1991, p. 61
William Zimmer, "A Show in Katonah Examines American Attitudes About Machines," The New York Times, December 30, 1990, p. 14
Malcom Browne, "Engines, Factories and Art, Or the Machine as Muse," The New York Times, December 28, 1990, p. C1
William Zimmer, "The Public and Private in Robust Dialogue," The New York Times, October 28, 1990
Kathy Grantham, "Katonah Museum's 'The Technological Muse'," North County News, November 14-20, 1990
"'The Technological Muse' Inaugural Exhibition at Katonah Museum of Art," Antiques & the Arts Weekly, Newtown, CT, November 2, 1990
Charles Hagen, "All That Jazz," ARTnews, February 1990
Ellen Handy, "David Kapp," Arts, September l989, p. 97
Georgia Marsh, "David Kapp, Interview," Bomb, Summer 1989
Ron Netsky, "Changes in the Landscape," Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester), May 7, 1989, p. 3D
Smith Kline & French Research & Development: Art Collection/ Upper Merion R & D Facility, Reflections on the collection by Mark Rosenthal, published by Smith Kline & French Laboratories, Inc., 1988
Joy Hakanson Colby, "Exhibits," The Detroit News, December 30, 1988, p. 4C
Marsha Miro, "Artist Has an Expressway of Showing City Life," Detroit Free Press, December 11, 1988
Margaret Moorman, "Transcendent," ARTnews, December 1988
John Loughhery, "David Kapp," Arts, February 1988
Michael Brenson, "David Kapp," The New York Times, December 11, 1987
Robert Mahoney, "The Decay of the Urban Landscape," Arts, November 1986
Timothy Cohrs, "Group Show," Arts, November 1986
Michael Brenson, "David Kapp," The New York Times, April 4, 1986
Daniel Rosenfeld, "Life in the Big City," exhibition catalogue, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Winter 1986
Bill Van Siclen, "Art that Beats Like the Big City that Inspired It," Providence Sunday Journal, January, 1986
Pamela J. Galbraith, "The Naked City Bares Its Soul," East Side Monthly, Providence, RI, February 1986
Norman Keyes, Jr., "New York Through Artists' Eyes," The Boston Globe, February 7, 1986
"A New York Album, New Yorkers," Vogue (London), November 1985
Glenn O'Brien, "David Kapp," Artforum, September 1985
Moonan/Walz, "International Style in New York," Town and Country, March 1985
Gary Indiana, "David Kapp at Manhattan Art," Art in America, September 1984
Roland Hagenberg, "Untitled 1984: The Art World in the Eighties," Essay by Robert Pincus-Witten, Pelham Press, 1984
Alan Jones, "David Kapp," Arts, June 1984
Yasmin Ramirez-Harwood, East Village Eye, May 1984
Morgan Lewis, The Villager, New York, 1983
_______, Bomb, No. 4, 1982
Robert Pincus-Witten, "Entries: Style Shucks," Arts, October 1989
SELECTED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Arthur Andersen Inc., Detroit, MI
BMW of North America, Woodcliff Lake, NJ
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn Union Gas Co., Brooklyn, NY
Champion International, Stamford, CT
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Chase Mellon Financial Group, Ridgefield, NJ
Chemical Bank, New York, NY
Foundation Paribas, Paris, France
GreenPoint Bank, Flushing, NY
Hilton Hotel, New York, NY
Henry Kaufman & Co., New York, NY
Kidder, Peabody, New York, NY
M & A Properties, Maspeth, NY
Bernard Madoff Investment Securities, New York, NY
Manufacturers's Hanover, New York, NY
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
McKinsey & Co., New York, NY
Metropolitan Life, New York, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Microsoft, Corp., Seattle, WA
Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Nokia, Dallas, TX
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Oak Brooke Bank, Pfizer Inc., New York, NY
Progressive Corp., Pepper Pike, OH
Proskauer, Rose, Mendelsohn & Goetz, New York, NY
Prudential Insurance Co., Newark, NJ
Smith Kline & French, Philadelphia, PA
The Sunshine Group, Ltd., New York, NY
3M, Minneapolis, MN
Zelle & Larson, Minneapolis, MN