Charlie Kaplan: Contours

A Dialogue between the Artist and the Stone

by Sandra Kraskin

Curving like mountains or waves, Charlie Kaplan’s sculptures echo the organic forms of nature. His work appears monumental whether it’s massive like Soaring, which rises nine feet, or much smaller like Black Slice, which is only 28 inches high. The marble, Kaplan’s favored material, imparts a timeless quality to his sculptures. It also provides a natural color that adds a unique beauty and a specific identity to each piece. As Kaplan, himself, explains, “My ideas come from the stone.” Because he carves directly, without a sketch as a guide, Kaplan is responding to the individual characteristics of each piece of stone, almost like he would to a spoken command. The stone is speaking to him, and he is following its imperatives. 

When Kaplan begins the conversation, he chooses a rock, not a rectangular block of stone. He removes the sections that have cracks or faults, and then he chisels out a small area while following the natural contours of the marble. As he expands the form, he maintains a dialogue in which he continues to react to the inherent structure of the stone. Kaplan speaks of a process that is intuitive: “I look for a pleasing curve in an area that I can develop. I turn the stone over and keep working until I can unite all the sides.”2Evaluating the traits of his stone, Kaplan follows not only his own instinct, but also the path the stone’s markings, shape, and texture suggest for him. This back and forth conversation allows Kaplan to make decisions and to establish a process he can employ to translate abstract ideas into concrete form. 

Embracing Abstract Art 

As a modernist, Kaplan has been inspired by the massive sculptures of Henry Moore and the simplified forms of Constantin Brancusi. His sculptures also recall the organic, curvilinear shapes and the automatic process of the European modernist, Jean (Hans) Arp. Kaplan visualizes his forms in the abstract tradition of the first half of the 20th century. When he began experimenting with sculptural forms, he rejected the long tradition of figurative sculpture and ignored the aggressive commercial images and process of the Pop artists who dominated the art world in the 1960s. His spontaneous approach, his encounter with stone, is more akin to the automatic process used by the Abstract Expressionist artists in the 1950s and 1960s. 

A Passion for Sculpture 

While Kaplan was working in business in the late 1960s, he began experimenting with sculpture, using a set of chisels to carve wood. In 1969, he enrolled in a sculpture course at Beverly Hills Adult School, where he learned to model with clay and wax. He also studied at Santa Monica City College, taking courses in welding and blacksmithing. In 1978, Kaplan enrolled in the extension school at UCLA to work with alabaster and marble. After a decade of exploring various materials and techniques, he became captivated by the smooth, sensual surface of marble. He credits Mary Ann DeVine at UCLA Extension and Charles Fulmer at American Jewish University, both in Los Angeles, for his early training in stone carving. 

In 1995, Kaplan visited Pietrasanta, a village in Tuscany, Italy, where he studied with Lynne Streeter and met a community of sculptors and Italian artisans who helped to guide him with his work in marble. Located near the renowned quarries of Carrara (where artists including Michelangelo have found their marble for centuries), Pietrasanta became a second home for Kaplan. He returns to Pietrasanta each summer.