Evolutionary Notes to WK

Annette Kaplan was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1947.  She graduated from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) in Berkeley in 1971.  Her work is represented in numerous public collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Phillips Collection, both in Washington, D.C.

Kaplan’s dramatic black and white tapestry is made of hand-dyed domestic wools.  Kaplan completed the tapestry in seven sections over a period of three months.  Kaplan wrote about her work: “While working on each piece, I am concerned with the dynamics among linear space relationships, tension, asymmetry and the total reading by the eye as it travels over the entirety.”  The narrative of Evolutionary Notes to WK reads from right to left.  On the far right is a thunderstorm, with jagged bolts of lightning.  At the center of the composition are pyramids, sailboats and a cityscape, where two animals approach each other.  One animal descends from a mountainside and the other stands in the middle of a road.  The structure in the far left corner is a bridge.  Kaplan’s overall composition uses simple line and pattern to create a surprisingly varied sense of space and movement.