Lauren A Kaplan Art Tours

Lauren A Kaplan Art Tours We now lead group classes on Zoom, and small, private, in-person tours based around special exhibiti

We lead private, interactive tours that highlight New York's most exciting art and architecture.

Joan Jonas (born in 1936) has been bending genres since the 1960s, and at eighty-seven, she is still going. Jonas began ...
04/18/2024

Joan Jonas (born in 1936) has been bending genres since the 1960s, and at eighty-seven, she is still going. Jonas began studying art history, then she earned an MFA in sculpture, and after that, she just started experimenting. She has worked with performance and dance, video and installation, mythical storytelling, and more recently, environmental art.  Across all mediums, her abiding interest is the concept of space: “I have a general relation to space, and it’s always the first thing I think of. I look at a space, and I put things in it. I move in the space, and I develop it,” she says. By “developing space,” Jonas creates immersive experiences that layer her mediums in an almost alchemical way. The end result is a magical “total work of art.” Indeed, to enter the mind of Joan Jonas, you must leave the rest of the world behind. It’s a lovely way to spend an hour or two

Such powerful images of maternal love and pain in the new Kathë Kollwitz show at
04/18/2024

Such powerful images of maternal love and pain in the new Kathë Kollwitz show at

There are some incredible surprises in “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism.” For one, I never knew one o...
04/02/2024

There are some incredible surprises in “The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism.” For one, I never knew one of the best portrait painters of the movement was a German emigré named Winold Reiss (the first two portraits here of Langston Hughes and Alain Locke are by him). The sheer diversity of styles and color palettes is astounding, and much of this work has not been seen by a large public in decades. It’s a sheer joy to see all of these works together to tell an story that has long been neglected in American art history!

Karon Davis, “Beauty Must Suffer” at . Such a stunning and powerful show!!
11/17/2023

Karon Davis, “Beauty Must Suffer” at . Such a stunning and powerful show!!

Some incredible details from Ed Ruscha’s massive retrospective at : Ed Ruscha moved from Oklahoma to LA in 1956, and ev...
11/02/2023

Some incredible details from Ed Ruscha’s massive retrospective at : Ed Ruscha moved from Oklahoma to LA in 1956, and ever since, he has been enamored of the city's gas stations and low-rise apartment buildings, its mountains, and dramatic sunsets. As a lover of language, he often pairs text with image, making his ordinary images seem both contemporary and surprising. “Words have temperatures to me,” Ruscha has explained. “Sometimes I have a dream that if a word gets too hot and too appealing, it will boil apart.” Indeed, Ruscha's words do sometimes seem to have aural or sensory components--they read as hot or cold, loud or quiet, heavy or light. At first glance, Ruscha's paintings seems light, forgettable, and even comical, but as a large body of work, they reveal essential truths about American culture and dreams. 

Just Chicago was the first artist I ever led tours on, when The Dinner Party came to the Brooklyn Museum nearly 20 years...
10/25/2023

Just Chicago was the first artist I ever led tours on, when The Dinner Party came to the Brooklyn Museum nearly 20 years ago. Now she is finally getting her due in a spectacular and wide ranging exhibition at the . This show demonstrates how Chicago has engaged with nearly every movement or style of the last six decades—minimalism, "finish fe**sh," land art, conceptual and performance art, identity exploration, and environmental activism. Never one to shy away from learning new skills, she mastered pyrotechnics, stained glass, spray paint, quilting, and even digital art. Always more interested in celebrating women in general than fluffing her own ego, the retrospective concludes with a show-within-a -show, which honors over ninety female artists who Chicago admires. Go see it!!

The new Richard Gilder Center at the AMNH is a space that truly invites wonder. The building, designed by Jeanne Gang St...
09/19/2023

The new Richard Gilder Center at the AMNH is a space that truly invites wonder. The building, designed by Jeanne Gang Studio, utilizes a novel construction technique called shotcrete on its interior. Concrete has been sprayed onto steel rebar to create a space that looks like a rough, white canyon, full of intriguing nooks and crannies. The exhibition spaces include everything from bat and fish skeletons to live butterflies, which will land on your arm if you’re still (and lucky) enough. Go check it out! You can also learn more about it in the virtual class I’m teaching this week. Link in bio for more info!

Love the new mosaics at my subway stop—7th Avenue on the F and G lines. No signage yet—just floating trains, floral des...
07/21/2023

Love the new mosaics at my subway stop—7th Avenue on the F and G lines. No signage yet—just floating trains, floral designs and rainbow hues. Can you tell us the artist, ?

Love the new mosaics at my subway stop—7th Avenue on the F and G lines. No signage yet—just floating trains and building...
07/21/2023

Love the new mosaics at my subway stop—7th Avenue on the F and G lines. No signage yet—just floating trains and buildings, floral designs and rainbow hues. Can you tell us the artist, ?

The show ‘It's Pablo-matic,’ curated by the Australian comedian, Hannah Gadsby, has some shortcomings. But, it is also ...
06/30/2023

The show ‘It's Pablo-matic,’ curated by the Australian comedian, Hannah Gadsby, has some shortcomings. But, it is also worth seeing for its originality. It offers a feminist critique of Picasso, the flagrant womanizer, and many of the text panels include jokes from Gadsby herself. When else has a museum asked a comedian to contribute to the didactics? In the show, Picasso is paired with over fifty female artists from the museum's collection, many of whom were associated with second wave feminism, which came to prominence around the time of Picasso’s death in 1973. The show is not an attempt to cancel Picasso or challenge his talent, but rather, a space to raise some significant questions: How should we consider this figure who was clearly a genius, but also a very problematic person, especially by today’s standards? Even Picasso himself said, “It’s not what the artist does that counts, but what he is.” Can we—or rather, must we—separate the man from the work?

There is so much texture and life in Van Gogh’s paintings of cypresses, now on view at the . It comes as no surprise tha...
06/14/2023

There is so much texture and life in Van Gogh’s paintings of cypresses, now on view at the . It comes as no surprise that these works are stunningly beautiful, but it is interesting to see just how obsessed he became with trying to capture these trees as he experienced them. “No one has done them yet as I see them,” he told his brother, Theo. For Van Gogh, these trees were not only new and exciting, but also symbols of strength and comfort.

It's rare for a museum exhibition to completely change our view of an artist we thought we knew.  The ongoing show offe...
05/04/2023

It's rare for a museum exhibition to completely change our view of an artist we thought we knew.  The ongoing show offers an effective re-reading of Georgia O'Keeffe, who, for decades, has been synonymous with images of flowers and desert landscapes. Much to our surprise, she was also a pioneering abstractionist. This gorgeous exhibition delves into her early forays into radical abstraction between 1915-18 and her seldom shown works on paper.  By examining her early charcoal drawings and watercolors, we get to glimpse O'Keeffe's process, and learn that she often worked in series, repeating an image again and again, simplifying it over time.  "I've been making this thing," she once wrote to Stieglitz, "and I'm perfectly sure that I'll have to make it again." It was only through this sort of manic repetition that she felt she could really see. "To see," she said,"takes time."

Gertrude Goldschmidt (aka Gego) and Sarah Sze are now sharing the ’s ramps, and they compliment each other beautifully. ...
04/26/2023

Gertrude Goldschmidt (aka Gego) and Sarah Sze are now sharing the ’s ramps, and they compliment each other beautifully.

Gego, (images 1-3) once said “Sculpture: three-dimensional forms in solid material. NEVER what I do!" Instead, she creates “Drawings without paper,” and “Reticulárea,” netlike sculptures that expand infinitely. Gego, who was born in Germany and emigrated to Venezuela in 1939, has never had such a large show in New York, and it’s long overdue.

Sarah Sze (images 4-7) builds installations that are always in flux. She has been given the top ramp of Frank Lloyd Wright's spiraling rotunda, and she makes use of the tall, curving space spectacularly with her creation of eight new, site-specific works that seem to emerge from the architecture. Her use of heavy quotidian materials (like ladders and clamps), carefully balanced amongst delicate photos and wooden scaffolding, remind us of life's fragility.

Together, these two women expand the definition of sculpture and help us see things differently

Cecily Brown’s “Death and the Maid” at the is full of meditations on vanity, mortality, and excess. But in the end, it ...
04/20/2023

Cecily Brown’s “Death and the Maid” at the is full of meditations on vanity, mortality, and excess. But in the end, it is really a show about the beauty of oil paint revealing and concealing its subject. Such a gorgeous show.

Some details from Wangechi Mutu’s fantastic retrospective at the . It’s a must see if you are looking for inventive ima...
03/31/2023

Some details from Wangechi Mutu’s fantastic retrospective at the . It’s a must see if you are looking for inventive images of female power and a great way to close out Women’s History Month.

It's officially spring! It's also Women's History month! Check out my spring lineup of virtual classes. Many of them are...
03/22/2023

It's officially spring! It's also Women's History month! Check out my spring lineup of virtual classes. Many of them are based around pioneering women artists who are featured in major exhibitions this season. Learn more here: https://kaplanarttours.com/newyorkartclasses/

It’s been 13 years, and I still love being in Frank Lloyd Wright’s building when it’s closed.
12/06/2022

It’s been 13 years, and I still love being in Frank Lloyd Wright’s building when it’s closed.

Finally updated my website! Check it out to see what I'm offering this season. Keep in mind that a private tour makes fo...
11/28/2022

Finally updated my website! Check it out to see what I'm offering this season. Keep in mind that a private tour makes for a great holiday gift :) Hope to see you soon!

https://kaplanarttours.com/

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Videos

Pierre Huyghe’s “Dream (John Cage)” @walkerartcenter. Huyghe made a wind pipe for every note in Cage’s 1948 score, but they are played randomly depending upon the movements of the wind. #walkerartcenter #johncage #windchimes

Adrian Piper made difficult conceptual work about race and gender identity for decades, then in 2007 she moved to Berlin and danced. See her show @themuseumofmodernart now! #adrianpiper #asynthesisofintuitions #conceptualart #moma

What happens when you take an old salt mine, turn it into a cathedral, then add a light show? Only in Colombia. #zipaquira #catedraldesal #catedraldesalzipaquira #colombia

Last moment of tranquility before leaving Santa Fe. #newmexico #landofenchantment #canyonroad

Robert Rauschenberg believed that "art can be a lonely business if you're really just working from your ego." Throughout his career, he collaborated with choreographers like Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, and Paul Taylor to design costumes and sets for their performances. Excerpts are being performed live @themuseumofmodernart for one last time tomorrow! #rauschenberg #rauschenbergamongfriends #moma #museumofmodernart #moderndance

As part of the @metmuseum's new exhibition "Talking Pictures," writers, filmmakers, and artists were paired up to have conversations via cell phone photos. Laura Poitras and Teju cole began corresponding in September 2016. After the election, Poitras went dark. In an effort to console her, Cole sent her a series of flowers bouquets. As the images flash on the screen, you see your own reflection between shots, bringing you into the poignant conversation. #metmuseum #talkingpictures #contemporaryart #contemporaryphotography #tejucole #laurapoitras #conversations

Sarah Sze constructs organized chaos in her first NYC solo show in 5 years @tanyabonakdargallery. These multimedia structures are made from the detritus of everyday life and mimic the rhythms of our quotidian activities. #sarahsze #video

Heinz Mack, co-founder of group ZERO, helped pioneer kinetic art with spinning works like 'Silver Dynamo.' The mesmerizing slow swirl demands--and rewards--sustained looking. @guggenheim #ZEROgroup

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