B.
Plain sailing
Behind the scenes
Another palpable hit in our project to clear copyright is the British artist Hellmut Sail (1908–1971)
Hellmut Sail Still life by a window. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, presented by Rex Nan Kivell
We had struggled to find any information about this artist, and the ambiguous way he signed his works, 'Hellmut S', made him doubly difficult to identify. But some fine detection by Alison Brownie led us to the holder of the copyright in his work, his son Lawrence, and so to some details about his life.
Hellmut Sail was born in Bromborough, near Liverpool in 1908, of German parents. He spent his childhood in Germany, travelled widely in pre-war Europe, particularly in Yugoslavia and Spain, settling eventually in England. He died in 1971.
We admired the four coloured woodcuts by Sail that are in our collection so much that one of them featured in our 2005 exhibition Graphica Britannica. The book of this show, which celebrated the gift of prints from Sir Rex Nan Kivell is available in our shop.
Related
Exhibition
Graphica Britannica
13 May 2005 – 8 October 2006
Highlights from the Rex Nan Kivell gift of prints by some of the most highly regarded British printmakers of the early to mid twentieth century.
Collection
Hellmut Sail Still-Life
The Rex Nan Kivell gift includes four still-life hand-coloured woodcuts by Hellmut Sail. He added emphasis to the composition through applying watercolour washes to the print to highlight certain elements. Little is known about Sail’s career as an artist. He was active in England during the 1930s and worked in a number of differing media, including woodcuts and gouache. In 1935 with Eric Gill and Paul Nash he held an exhibition in London at the Storran Gallery in London.
