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Alice M. Kaplan:
an Extraordinary Connoisseur
Alice M. Kaplan (1903-1995) is remembered for her generosity and Museum, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum
devotion to the world of art and design in New York City. A student of Art, Newark Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery, among others. She
of fne art with an interest and passion for history, Kaplan pursued received an honorary degree from Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania,
academia well into her adult life, which intimately informed the trajectory of was published in Art Bulletin, and sat on numerous boards across diferent
her collecting habits. Her collection was of modest size and excellent quality, institutions. She aided in establishing funds and fellowships, proving herself to
spanning various regions, periods and styles. Whether it was at auction or be a great advocate of students and artists, particularly in New York City. She
from galleries, she had a stellar eye for important examples of art. also had a hand in reorienting the way art, and subsequently art history, was
implemented in secondary education; her involvement with The Art of Seeing
Kaplan’s rich life story began in Budapest, Hungary in 1903. Her parents aforded a half million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation to produce a video
moved to New York early in her life, a city in which she thrived. She attended series to be used in public schools to encourage a visual education of art.
Teachers College at Columbia University and later studied under and
alongside many American artists at the Art Students League in the 1920s. She Although Kaplan was known for her adoration of American Folk Art, as
took time to establish her family before returning to her artistic and academic evidenced by her collection, she also acquired works from a variety of cultures,
endeavors in 1958, when she became involved with the American Federation including pre-Columbian and Asian arts. As she learned more about diferent
of Arts where she held positions as trustee and president. She returned to genres and cultures of art, so grew her desire to collect beautiful objects. She
Columbia University to pursue her master’s degrees in art history, which never ceased learning, even until reaching the age of 92.
she received in 1963. She began collecting more diligently to compliment
her curiosity and growing knowledge of the arts, which strongly defned her Christie’s sale of The Ideal Image: Eight Masterpieces of Indian and Southeast
public persona. Asian Art in 2008 ofered two exquisite sculptures from the collection, a south
Indian granite fgure of Venugopala and a Khmer fgure of Uma. Christie’s is
Kaplan is also well known for her lasting impact on institutions such as The honored again to present this Gandharan gray schist fgure of Buddha from the
New School, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, American Folk Art Alice M. Kaplan Collection.
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