The Tailor 1957 - 1961

Anatoli Kaplan made this lithograph, The Tailor, with ink on paper, and what I love about it is the density of the marks. It's like Kaplan is building up this whole world, scraping and hatching and daubing to evoke the tailor's workshop. I can imagine Kaplan, leaning over the lithographic stone, thinking about the tailor, maybe someone he knew, someone from his past. The tailor, caught mid-gesture, hands raised as if conjuring the perfect fit. The children down low, peering at us, at the tailor. The texture is heavy; I can feel the grit of the stone, the drag of the ink. It’s a world created through labor, built up mark by mark, like a tailor stitching a seam, or an artist making a print. It reminds me that all artists are in this ongoing conversation, a call and response across time and space, an inspiration, a remix of the world around them.