Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman
Maira Kalman encourages you to smile, think, dream and feel emotions intensely. The world would be a better place if we all fell under the spell of her mesmerizing artwork and read her books regularly.
Women Holding Things (Harper Design) immediately grabbed my attention and drew me into this exuberant and colorful celebration of life. This beautiful book would be the perfect gift for most occasions offering the recipient or reader their own contemplative art gallery in miniature.
ARTFULLY COMBINING PAINTING AND TEXT
The inspiration for it came at the height of the pandemic after the artist self-published a limited-edition booklet called Women Holding Things as a fundraiser for hunger prevention which quickly sold out.
This book is an expansion of that concept featuring over 85 paintings by Maria Kalman, edited and designed in collaboration with her son, Alex Kalman. The text between the artwork is a combination of prose and poetry, thoughtful reflections, anecdotes and intensely personal observations.
There are deeply revelatory autobiographical details about the artist and her family as well as captivating speculations about each of the women depicted in the act of holding things. They range from tangible objects, living beings or symbolic concepts such as holding a gaze, a thought or containing an emotion.
It runs the gamut from whimsy to poignancy as it celebrates the ordinary humdrum chores in daily life as well as the heightened moments of celebrations to times of unimaginable grief and depths of sorrow. Several generations of both the maternal and paternal sides of the author’s family perished in the Holocaust and are remembered here.
COLORFUL, BOLD AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING
Craftsmanship has not gone out of style. The design of the book is as bold and colorful as the book itself. The texture and quality of the paper and richness of the printing adds to the pleasure of reading and admiring its contents.
In conjunction with the publication of Women Holding Things, the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York City will present an exhibition of some of the paintings from the book featuring women holding objects as well as thoughts and ideas.
The inside cover neatly summarizes this happy surprise of a book with the following:
“You hold in your hands a thing I hold most dear, a Book. If there was ever a time to hold onto something, this is it. Hold on, dear friends, hold on.”
DEPICTING BOTH ANONYMOUS AND FAMOUS WOMEN
The women chosen as subjects for the paintings are often anonymous, yet arresting figures, who are holding objects, animate and inanimate such as a chicken, a pink cup, red balloons, opinions about modern art, books, a cabbage, and a child’s hand, which might seem random at first glance.
There are also commanding literary figures such as Gertrude Stein, whose best-known work, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, was recently given new life with the publication of a new edition lavishly illustrated by Maira Kalman. Edith Sitwell and Virginia Woolf reside within these pages.
We also discover Hortense Cezanne who holds her own, separate from and as important in her home as her famous husband is in the art world. There are friends and family members, dreams, abstractions and reality to contemplate and consider.
Women Holding Things is the vision of the genius, multi-talented artist, designer, illustrator, writer and so much more who is Maira Kalman. Holding it while opening oneself to the artwork and reading it sparks joy and wonder.
AN ESSENTIAL BOOK FOR ART LOVERS
If the reader is unfamiliar with the many children’s and adult books illustrated and created by the author, or with her influences in the fashion and design industry, this is an excellent introduction to her work.
Some personal favorites of mine are: Hurry Up and Wait, in collaboration with Daniel Handler who wrote the text with illustrations by Maira Kalman, and fabulous vintage photographs from MOMA of people in motion or waiting, sitting, standing, walking, or simply being caught in the frame. Another is her collaboration with creative genius David Byrne on the print documentation of his Broadway show and film American Utopia.
Buy or borrow a copy of Women Holding Things and be prepared to experience a wide range of emotions and then share this precious book with those you love.
