Chave 1957 - 1961

Here's "Chave", made by Anatoli Kaplan, who was born in 1902. Look at the way that texture builds up the image! It looks like a fine dust covers the surface. The portrait seems to emerge from the darkness, particle by particle. I imagine Kaplan, leaning in, coaxing the face into being with tiny marks, each one an exploration. He’s pushing and pulling, figuring out just how much pressure to apply to the lithographic crayon. The velvety blacks feel like the work of Kollwitz, but something about the granular quality reminds me of Seurat's pointillism. Maybe Kaplan looked at them too. The history of art is artists looking at other artists. Like, what do we do but riff on each other, trying to find a new way of saying something. Each mark is a decision, and the painting accumulates into a whole conversation across time. It’s never really finished, is it?