Z. Vanessa Helder
Zama Vanessa Helder (1904-1968) was an American artist from the Pacific Northwest who came from a family of Theosophists.
Personal life
She died in Los Angeles on May 1, 1968, a week after her husband.
Involvement with Theosophy
Her parents, businessman Rynard Helder and his artistic wife Anna were interested in Theosophy and Spiritualism. None of the family are listed as members of the Theosophical Society in America, so they may have been independent Theosophists or adherents of some other branch of the broader Theosophical Movement. Vanessa's drawing of H. P. Blavatsky in the August 1931 issue of World Theosophy and the presence of additional drawings in June 1932 indicate some degree of connection to editor Marie Russak in Los Angeles.
Career as an artist
June 1932.
A series of paintings of the Grand Coulee Dam construction is usually considered to be her most significant contribution. She was aware of the works' value, and kept the series together, eventually selling it to the Eastern Washington State Historical Society (now the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture) in 1954.
Numerous exhibitions have displayed Helder's watercolors.Examples of Helder's works can be seen in the collections of "the Seattle Art Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Newark Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA, the Portland Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the St. Louis Art Museum, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, N.Y., IBM Corporation, and the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture in Spokane," according to Wikipedia.
Additional resources
Articles
- Vanessa Helder by Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture.
- Z. Vanessa Helder in Wikipedia.
Books
- Bullock, Margaret and David F. Martin. Austere Beauty: The Art of Z. Vanessa Helder.
- David F. Martin An Enduring Legacy: Women Painters of Washington.
