The Tailor 1957 - 1961

Anatoli Kaplan’s lithograph, "The Tailor," captures a scene with such immediacy, it's like stumbling upon a secret moment. The limited palette of blacks and whites creates a stark, almost dreamlike quality. The texture! Look closely. See how the ink is built up, especially in the tailor’s figure, giving him a weightiness, a presence. It’s almost sculptural. I love how the artist lets the process show, the grit and grain of the lithographic stone becoming part of the image itself. It reminds me that art-making is a conversation between the artist and the materials. Kaplan’s work shares a raw, emotional quality with artists like Käthe Kollwitz, who also used printmaking to explore themes of hardship and resilience. It's this unflinching gaze, this willingness to embrace the messy, imperfect aspects of life, that makes "The Tailor" so compelling. Art isn’t about easy answers; it's about asking the questions, and letting the ambiguity linger.