DAVID KAPP Points of View
David Kapp Points of View April 5 – 30, 2014 Alpha Gallery 37 Newbury Street Boston, Ma 02116 617.536.4465 info@alphagallery.com www.alphagallery.com
F
or most of us, seeing a large city involves looking up at the lofty architecture or at a distance toward the skyline and city lights.
David Kapp’s urban landscape paintings, however, are exposés of the streets. In his compositions, the viewer looks down on the packed streets of the city from above, often perched precariously from impossible vantage points. People and cars populate Kapp’s cityscapes while the physical structures of the city itself outline the periphery and often fall outside the picture plane completely. Each Kapp scene is a microcosm of the larger city it represents, like a snapshot capturing a passing moment too rich for the eye to decode and devour in an instant. Like the best jazz songs, Kapp’s oil paintings are composed and controlled despite their chaos of color and loose brushwork. Kapp layers dabs of color together to form a throng of people crossing the street and heading in every possible direction. The loose application of paint and imprecise outlines and boundaries between figures and objects suggest movement and buzz, as if everything was in a slight state of a blur of activity. The brush, plethora of colors, and crowded scene push the notion of chaos without devolving into it. Lauren P. Della Monica Painted Landscapes—Contemporary Views Schiffer, 2013 A Note about This Catalog One important aspect of David Kapp’s work is the process he employs leading up to the final work. From sketches in ink, watercolor or oil crayon to collages to oils on linen, he works his ideas across a variety of platforms. Thus, Kapp’s direct observations are re-interpreted in the artist’s own visual language. For this catalog we have chosen to present the final works alongside a select group of preparatory works to offer a glimpse into this process.
West East, 2013, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and ink on pasted paper, 28 x 44 inches
Canal Street West, 2011, oil on linen, 16 x 16 inches
Moving Crowd, 2008–2014, oil on linen, 60 x 48 inches
Harlem Elevated, 2012, oil on linen, 12 x 14 inches
Broadway From 150th Street, 2012, oil on linen, 30 x 24 inches
Construction on Third Ave., 2009–2013, oil on linen, 40 x 36 inches
Wall Street I - Looking Up, 2013, oil on linen, 72 x 72 inches
Wall Street II – Looking Up, 2014, oil on linen, 36 x 40 inches
Second Avenue South, 2014, 28 x 34 inches
California Cyclist, 2013, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and ink on pasted paper, 30 x 40 inches
Cyclist and Sign, 2014, oil on linen, 44 x 38 inches
3 Figures, 2013, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and ink on pasted paper, 30 Âź x 44 inches
2 Figures, 2013, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and ink on pasted paper, 30 x 36 ½ inches
Walkers, 2014, oil on linen, 48 x 60 inches
Vertical Crowd on Red Ground, 2014, oil on linen, 50 x 40 inches
Born in New York, NY, 1953 SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arthur Anderson Inc., Detroit, MI Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada BMW of North America, Woodcliff Lake, NJ Brooklyn Union Gas Co., Brooklyn, NY Champion International, Brooklyn, NY Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY Chase Mellon Financial Group, Ridgefield, NJ Chemical Bank, New York, NY Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME Foundation Paribas, Paris, France GreenPoint Bank, Flushing, NY Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, NC Hilton Hotel, New York, NY Henry Kaufman & Co., New York, NY Kidder, Peabody, New York, NY M & A Properties, Maspeth, NY Manufacturer’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 Corporation, Redmond, WA Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX National Academy Museum, New York, NY Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV Nokia, Dallas, TX
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC Oak Brook Bank, Oak Brook, IL Pfizer, Inc., New York, NY Portland Museum of Art, Portland, OR Progressive Corporation, Pepper Pike, OH Proskauer, Rose, Mendelsohn and Goetz, New York, NY Prudential Insurance Co., Newark, NJ Smith, Kline & French, Philadelphia, PA Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston, MA The Sunshine Group, Ltd., New York, NY Tufts University, Medford, MA 3M, Minneapolis, MN Zelle & Larson, Minneapolis, MN AWARDS
American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1994 Rosenthal Foundation Award, American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1985 CAPS Fellowship in Painting, 1982 Hassam Purchase Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1979 EDUCATION
Queens College, Queens, NY, MFA, 1977 Windham College, Putney, VT, BFA, 1974
Cover Image: Cyclist and Sign (detail), 2014 oil on linen, 44 x 38 inches
Photo: Š John Goodman 2008
Alpha Gallery