ANATOLY KAPLAN - BIO

08.11.22

ANATOLY KAPLAN

December 28, 1902 Anatoly Lvovich Kaplan (birth name: Tanchum the son of Levik (Levi Yitzchak) and Sarah, born in the town of Rogachov, a small shtetl in the Gomel region, Russian Empire (now Belarus)

1909-1914 Studies in cheder, a Jewish school for young children where Hebrew and religious studies were taught.

1914-1916 Studies at a local elementary school

1916-1918 Paints signs for Rogachov shopkeepers together with friend Samuil Galkin (Shmuel Halkin) (1897-1960), who would go on to becomea well-known poet in the Soviet Union

1922-1927 Studies at the Higher Art and Technical Institute (VKhUTEIN) (Petrograd-Leningrad) under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Nikolai Radlov and Arkady Rylov

1928 Collaborates with the avant-garde OBERIU group, participates in the design of Daniil Kharms’ play Elizabeth Bam

Late 1920’s –
Mid-1930’s Engages in various types of industrial graphics, including the production of advertising posters, trade labels, etc. By the early 1930’s, designs and illustrates children’s books. During this period, regularly visits his hometown of Rogachov, where he paints scenes of local life and people.

1934 Marries Yevgeniya (Gina) Libman. Their only child, Lyuba, is born a year later

1937-1940 Studies at the Leningrad Experimental Workshop where he masters the technique of lithography under celebrated graphic artist Georgy S. Vereisky. From this time, lithography becomes the most important tool for Kaplan's artistic expression. Creates Kasrilovka, his first cycle of lithographs.

1939 Accepted as a member of the Union of Soviet Artists and begins to participate in State exhibitions

1940 Together with a group of Leningrad artists, visits Riga, Chernivtsi and Chisinau, the capitals of Latvia, Bukovina and Moldova, that were then part of the U.S.S.R. Creates sketches of nature that were displayed at the "Exhibition of paintings, watercolors and drawings of Moscow and Leningrad artists" in Bialystok, August 1940

November 1941 Kaplan’s parents and other family members murdered in the Rogachov Ghetto.

1942-1943 The Siege of Leningrad forces Kaplan, his wife and young daughter to be evacuated to the city of Chusovoi, Perm Region. Kaplan makes a number of large drawings and watercolors with images of northern nature and depictions of everyday life of Ural towns during the war. These compositions exhibited at "The Urals in the Fine Arts (Perm [Molotov], June 1943) and “The Urals – Forge of Soviet Weapons” (Sverdlovsk, 1944) exhibitions

1944 Returns to Leningrad after the blockade of Leningrad was lifted

1944-1947 Creates lithographs dedicated to the post-war revival of Leningrad. The series was greeted with great acclaim and bought by 18 state galleries.

1950-1951 Works as the chief artist of the Leningrad Art Glass Factory, with decorative and household items (vases, drinking vessels, etc.) made according to his designs. Improves the technique of stained glass production

March 5, 1953 Death of Joseph Stalin

1960 During his visit to Leningrad, Kaplan meets Eric Estorick, an American collector and patron whose parents emigrated from Russia to the U.S. to escape anti-Semitism in 1905. Estorick owns the Grosvenor Gallery of London and becomes an admirer and promoter of Kaplan's work

1953-1963 Completes a series of lithographs based on Sholem Aleichem’s story “The Enchanted Tailor”

Early 1960s Returns to painting, works in gouache and tempera

1957-1961 Creates a series of lithographs based Sholem Aleichem’s "Tevye the Dairyman" as well as a series of color lithograph illustrations based on the Passover song "Chad Gadya"

1961, 1962 First exhibition in London at the Grosvenor Gallery (“Lithographs by Twenty-Seven Soviet Artists (May 1961), followed by a solo exhibition (November-December 1961) at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Bezalel National Museum in Jerusalem

1958-1962 Creation of a series of lithographs and gouaches “Jewish Folk Songs” and “Song of Songs” based on the story by Sholem Aleichem

1962-1963 Creates a series of works (gouache and tempera) based on the vocal cycle of Dmitry Shostakovich’s “From Jewish Folk Poetry”

1963-1967 Works on a series of lithographs based on Sholem Aleichem's novel “Stempenyu”

1965-1970 Creates a series of lithographs for Sholem Aleichem’s "Stories for Children"

1966-1967 Creates lithographs Mendele Moykher-Sforim’s (Shleom Yankel Abramovich’s) “Fishka the Lame” and the stories of Y. L. Peretz

Late 1960s-1970s Works in ceramics, creates decorative and ritual objects, and ceramic sculptures based on Nikolai Gogol’s “The Dead Souls” and “Inspector General” as well as Isaac Babel’s “Odessa Tales”

1970’s Creation of cycles of color drawings with scenes from shtetl life

1976 Creates a second series, this time in etchings, for “Fishke” and other stories

1977 Creates etchings for his “Jewish Folk Songs” series

1975-1980 Creates the Rogachov series in etching

July 3, 1980 Dies in Leningrad

Exhibitions
1961 Grosvenor Gallery, London.

1962 Bezalel National Museum, Jerusalem.

1962 Galleria “Le Art Enciennes”, Torino.

1964 Bildergalerie “Kupferstich-Kabinett”, Dresden.

1967 Municipal Gallery, Liberec; Gallery on Charles Square, Prague

1968 Pucker-Safrai Gallery, Boston

1971 Kunstausstellung, Leipzig