- Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan
Anatoli (Tankhum) Lvovich Kaplan ( _ru. Анатолий Львович Каплан), (
December 26 1902 inRogachev ,Belarus -July 3 ,1980 in Leningrad) was aRussia n painter, sculptor andprintmaker , whose works often reflect hisJewish origins.Life
Kaplan one was one of six children; his father was a butcher in
Rogachev which was at that time within the JewishPale of Settlement in Russia. His background was therefore not dissimilar to that ofMarc Chagall , born a generation earlier in 1887, and although their lifes were very different, their art has much in common. Theshtetl figures in many of Kaplan's paintings - autobiographical references are very clear in "The Butcher's Shop" (1972) and "Tailor's Shops" (1975) and in the many illustrations which he was to create to the works ofSholom Aleichem .Around 1922 Kaplan came to Leningrad (then named Petrograd), where he was to base his career for the rest of his life, although he often revisited the towns of his childhood. He graduated in 1927 from the Russian Academy of Arts there.
In the 1930s he became associated with a group of artists and
lithographer s in Leningrad which had been instructed to prepare a series of works dedicated to the remoteJewish Autonomous Oblast , being created byStalin in the hope of resettling Russia's Jewish population in a remote area in the Far East of the country. Here Kaplan learnt and took to the skills of printmaking, developing many individual techniques. His first cycle of prints (1937-1940) was entitled "Kasrilevka", (the name of the village invented by Sholom Aleichem).During the war Kaplan was at first evacuated to the
Urals , but returned to Leningrad in 1944. His lithograph cycle of "Landscapes of Leningrad during the Days of the Blockade" (1948) was widely acclaimed in Russia and was purchased by eighteen State galleries.At one time Kaplan was supervisor of design in a glassware factory and this gave him an interest in the third dimension which was later to blossom in his ceramics and sculptures.
From the 1950s onwards Kaplan's artworks concentrated on Jewish themes, despite constant and often serious opposition and obstruction from the Soviet cultural authorities. Amongst these works should be mentioned his cover and illustrations to the "Jewish Folksongs" of
Dmitri Shostakovich (1977) , illustrations to Aleichem's "Tevye the Milkman" (3 series, 1957-1966), "The Enchanted Tailor" (1954-57) and "Song of Songs" (1962), and a magnificent series of coloured lithographs (printed in London in 1961) on the old JewishPassover song "Chad Gadya " ("One Kid Goat"). Throughout this time Kaplan was also producing paintings though in view of their subject matter they were rarely displayed in the Russia of his time. From 1967 onward he began also to produce ceramics and sculptures, including a remarkable set based on the characters ofGogol 's "Dead Souls ".Exhibitions
A substantial retrospective exhibition of Kaplan's work was held at the
Russian Museum , St. Petersburg, in 1995. Other major exhibitions have been held inNew York (1992),London ,Amsterdam ,Jerusalem and elsewhere.References
*"Anatoli L. Kaplan: Variationen zu jiddischen Volksliedern", int. Beate Jahn-Zechendorff (Leipzig, 1976)
*"Anatoli L. Kaplan: Das zeichnersiche Werk 1928 bis 1977", ed. Juri Kuznezow (Leipzig, 1979)
*"Anatoli L. Kaplan:Keramik", ed. Klaus G. Beyer, (Berlin, 1977)
*"Anatoly Kaplan" (catalogue of exhibition at Russian Museum; 2 vols.) (Pub. Josef Kiblitsky, St. Petersburg, 1995). ISBN 3-930775-01-8. Book text in English, German and Russian. See [http://www.amazon.de/Anatoly-Kaplan-Malerei-Graphik-Skulptur/dp/3930775018 book details] at German Amazon.External links
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/yiddish/Kaplan/ Photograph of Kaplan and book illustrations by him.]
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