Buffalo Kaplinski 1964 Watercolor — Pre-Taos Chicago Period

A theatrical early watercolor by Buffalo Kaplinski, painted in May 1964 during his student years at the Art Institute of Chicago. The composition bisects on a vertical axis: warm ochre light floods the left half, where tumbling cubist-influenced blocks suggest broken masonry and a tipped vessel; the right resolves into a cool blue-green passage where a silhouetted figure stands beneath an archway above a flight of stone steps. Every diagonal — the rising line of the steps, the cascade of stones, the strongest value contrast on the sheet — converges on that small figure, with a faint orange spark of light burning behind him inside the doorway.

Kaplinski works wet-on-wet washes across the full sheet, layering dry-brush geometry and ink-line drawing over the atmospheric fields, and reserves bare paper for the brightest passages — the negative-space economy that would become a hallmark of his mature watercolor practice. The restricted ochre, indigo, and ink palette is the "subdued urban colors" his biographers identify with his Chicago period. Signed lower right "bKaplinski 5.64." Presented under glass in a silver-finish wood frame with cream double mat.

CONDITION

Very Good — Watercolor pigments remain bright and unfaded, with no foxing, staining, or significant paper toning visible through the glassed mat. Silver-finish frame shows light corner wear consistent with age. Not examined out of frame.

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Frame: 18" H × 26" W
• Sight (visible artwork): 9" H × 18" W
• Medium: Watercolor on paper
• Signature: Lower right, "bKaplinski 5.64"
• Date: May 1964
• Presentation: Framed under glass, double-matted

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Buffalo Kaplinski (American, b. 1943) is a nationally recognized watercolorist best known for his expressive interpretations of the American Southwest. Born in Chicago to a Polish immigrant family, he showed artistic talent early and began formal classes at the Art Institute of Chicago at age nine. He returned there as a student in 1964, then trained at the American Academy of Art in 1965 under master watercolorist Irving Shapiro (1927–1994).

After a brief career as a commercial illustrator in Chicago — a period characterized by urban subjects and a subdued tonal palette — Kaplinski relocated to Taos, New Mexico in 1967. There his work transformed: the saturated light of the Southwest replaced the muted greys of the industrial Midwest, and he became part of a Taos circle that included Ned Jacob, George Carlson, and Len Chmiel. He has since worked plein air across more than 25 countries, with a long-standing focus on the canyon country of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.

His paintings have been exhibited by the American Watercolor Society, the National Academy of Design, and the Artists of America Show, and he has been featured at the Grand Canyon Celebration of Art and the Plein Air Convention & Expo. His life and work are the subject of Harmon S. Graves's monograph Passionate Landscape: The Painting Journeys of Buffalo Kaplinski (Sunstone Press, 2006). Kaplinski continues to paint and teach from his ranch in Elizabeth, Colorado.

Early dated works from his Chicago student period — predating his 1967 move to Taos and the Southwest subjects that define his mature career — are uncommon at market.