MR. EDMOND X. KAPP'S " REFLECTIONS."* THE Concise Oxford Dictionary
defines "caricature" as the "grotesque representation of person or thing by over-emphasis on characteristic traits." If that is a true definition, then all of Mr. Kapp's drawings are more than caricatures, because all of them are conscious designs. They are " reflections " on personalities, witty but sympathetic ; they represent an interested probing. But they are also aesthetic creations in themselves ; they will please without reference to their subjects. This combination, surely, turns illustration into art. Mr. Kapp expresses the personality as he feels it. "It is rather to express in line and form the imaginative response of his mind to the impact of personality, something more intuitive and less conscious than criticism, and not necessarily in the atmosphere of comedy," Mr. Binyon writes in his introduction. That is true. Drawings like those of his charwoman, of Madala, of Einstein, of Rabindranath Tagore, are full por- traiture, very well done. Mr. Kapp has felt in these cases no need for over-emphasis of any one aspect. The drawings become emphatic by the accumulation of well-observed and well-expressed detail. He shows us, on the other hand, only the back of Mr. Clement Shorter, but that is filled out and is sufficient. For the North American Highbrow (what an excellent drawing 1), for Mr. Rummel, for Mks Harriet Cohen, for Mr. Hyndman the mere outline is enough. Mr. Kapp's outline is very expressive. The rhythm and certainty of his drawing show themselves most obviously in these works and in the purely aesthetic An Arrangement of Lincs. Witty as a reflection, the Rev. R. J. Campbell is, perhaps, the only drawing that is not satisfactory as a design. The sweeping and violent lines are not balanced or inevitable in direction. Mr. George Graves, Mr. Harold Samuel and Symphony Concert "Tutu" supply Mr. Kapp with themes for compositions that embrace the figure. The last drawing has not, unfortunately, reproduced as well as the simpler work and it is regrettable that it was included. It was remarkable in Mr. Kapp's exhibition, but it "loses caste" in his book by the accident of a mechanical process. Busoni Playing Beethoven is a really masterly little drawing, in which strength and solidity are obtained with surprising economy. It is almost sculptural. Such work makes us regret that Mr. Kapp has not tried for a fuller development of his powers in paint and in freeing himself from his personalities. But the artist must follow his own impulse, and we should be sorry to lose his "reflections." That he has a poetic vision, not in subject only, but in the relations of masses is manifested in the suggestive drawing Lonely Road. Enough has been said to show Mr. Kapp's wide range and his skilful adaptation of method to subject. Unhampered either by a convention of " funniness " or an equally deadening convention of seriousness, Mr. Kapp is always sincere, and expresses adequately his original and • ltellectioru. By Edmond X. Kapp. With Introductory comments by Laurence Dineen and W. H. Davies. London : Jonathan Cape. 110e. Od. net.)
critical feeling about people. He is a critic of men who talks in terms, not of psychology, but of art. The publishers have produced a delightful book, well printed and well arranged:
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