Russian collectors donated works by Belarusian-born Anatoly Kaplan to the Marc Chagall Museum in Vitebsk

January 30, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Russian collectors Isaac and Lyudmila Kushnir today donated 62 works by the renowned artist Anatoly Kaplan, a native of Belarus, to the Marc Chagall Museum in Vitebsk, a BELTA correspondent reports. The donation to the Vitebsk museum includes drawings, etchings from illustration series for Sholom Aleichem's works, and paintings representing different stages of Anatoly Kaplan's creative activity. Isaac Kushnir admitted that, despite not having met the artist personally, he fulfilled Kaplan's wish to return to his homeland and leave his works there. "It is right when an artist's works return. This is how his memory is preserved," Lyudmila Kushnir added. As noted at a press conference at the Marc Chagall Museum by Natalia Kozyreva, Candidate of Art History, Head of the Department of Drawings and Watercolors of the 18th-20th Centuries at the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the collections of most museums consist of donations from patrons. It is gratifying that there are still selfless collectors who understand that art should belong to as many people as possible. According to her, despite a large number of Kaplan's works being in private collections abroad, the Kushnir couple has assembled the artist's best works in St. Petersburg. Lyudmila Khmelnitskaya, Director of the Marc Chagall Museum, confessed that the gift was unexpected and very pleasant. The museum plans to present this collection as a separate exhibition and also to showcase it in other Belarusian cities, primarily in Rogachev. According to her, an agreement with the local museum has already been reached. Isaac Kushnir added that he and his wife are currently considering the possibility of donating a significant part of their collection to Rogachev. In addition to the priceless gift, the Marc Chagall Museum in Vitebsk has gained the opportunity to present over a hundred works by Anatoly Kaplan from the Kushnir couple's collection to the general public. An exhibition titled "I Am From Rogachev" opened today in Vitebsk. For the first time in Belarus, the works of the famous native of Rogachev are presented so widely. Anatoly Kaplan was born in the early 20th century in Rogachev, which was then a Jewish shtetl. In 1918, he moved to Vitebsk, where he met Marc Chagall, who headed the provincial commissariat for arts at that time. Chagall did not overlook the young artist's talent and recommended him to go to Petrograd to study drawing. From then on, Anatoly Kaplan's life was forever connected with the city on the Neva and his art. In Soviet art, Anatoly Kaplan was a recognized master of graphics, striving to integrate themes of shtetl Jewish culture into the mainstream of modern art. Just as Chagall constantly returned to his native city of Vitebsk in his works, Kaplan constantly recalled Rogachev in his art. The inhabitants and streets of this small provincial town can be seen in many of the artist's works. He created the graphic series "Memories of Rogachev." Kaplan was not deprived of fame. However, he gained the greatest recognition abroad. His exhibitions, starting from 1961, were held in London, Jerusalem, Turin, Dresden, Venice, Prague, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. After the artist's death in 1980, the geography of exhibitions remained extensive. Collections of Kaplan's works are kept in the funds of the State Russian Museum and the Pushkin Museum. More than 60 albums and books dedicated to Anatoly Kaplan's work have been published abroad. -0-