Saturday, June 10, 2006




An Artist In Miniatures


We’ll definitely be revisiting Jacques Kapralik from time to time at Greenbriar Picture Shows, as his caricatures (and he seems to have produced thousands of them) are the most distinctive of any we’ve ever run across. The process was called "3-D Paper Structure", and he maintained drawers filled with tiny props that he’d use to decorate his canvas. Tiny shoes, jewelry, lamps, pots and pans --- whatever he needed to get the effect he was after. There were facsimiles of popular brand name items, like coffee, flour, and cereals. Endless samples of cloth and yarn were used to create realistic backgrounds. Kapralik would often take six or more weeks to get out just one of his little masterpieces. MGM used him often. These are just three of the projects he completed for them, but there were lots of others. Keeper Of The Flame, Babes On Broadway, and The Hucksters will do for a start, but keep watching for (many) more of these as we come across them….