Tevia and His Wife Golde 1957 - 1961

Anatoli Kaplan made this lithograph, Tevia and His Wife Golde, using a monochrome palette that feels almost like a memory being recalled. It's a process of building up tone with these tiny, almost frantic marks. Kaplan’s image has this incredible surface, doesn’t it? The texture is so alive, with each little mark doing its own thing, but also contributing to the whole. Look at the way the light seems to catch on Tevia's beard, and then get lost in the dark folds of Golde’s headscarf. The marks aren’t just descriptive, they’re expressive, they almost feel like you could touch them. Notice how the faces are more clearly defined, and how the rest of the bodies seem to blend into the background. This is an example of how our eyes can be drawn to specific areas, and how it is possible to use mark making to create a hierarchy of focus. It makes me think of Käthe Kollwitz, with that same sense of raw emotion conveyed through printmaking. Ultimately, Kaplan’s lithograph is about the feeling, not just the story; it's an open-ended conversation.