Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations               (of a Crazy World)

“Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World),” currently on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, is a cornucopia of images and themes that delight the eye and mind alike. This first museum survey of illustrator, author, and designer Maira Kalman features one hundred original works on paper culled from thirty years of publishing. Paintings, sketches, and journal entries are platforms for the artist’s musings on life’s complexities, absurdities, and pleasures, and render a whimsical account of contemporary life.

Though varied and wide-ranging, Kalman’s illustrations are testimonies to her daily activity of observing the world around her and creating meaning from chaos. The artist furnished the gallery space with an arrangement of ladders, chairs, buckets, and ironing boards. These utilitarian objects indicate the artist’s daily creative activities both inside and outside the studio. In the center of the room, stacks of snowy white linen, sprinkles of eucalyptus, and sprigs of lavender infuse the scene with an air of domesticity. Display tables scattered throughout the gallery space contain a collection of everyday objects, including fezzes, bobby pins, onion rings, lists, and other odd ephemera. The fragmented nature of the show reflects intentional randomness that is supposed to mirror life itself.

Kalman’s work can be perceived as a form of journalism that blends fragments of past impressions, personal memories, and daily observations into a cohesive narrative of image and text. The exhibition includes covers and drawings for The New Yorker, selections from her twelve children’s books, images from a yearlong column for The New York Times, and gouache paintings from The Elements of Style (Illustrated). A suggestive punning word-play aids in the artist's construction of meaning, since it asks the viewer to re-examine how daily

Maira Kalman, He noticed the large stain right in the center of the rug, 2004; gouache on paper, 11 5/8 x 9 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Julie Saul Gallery, New York.

life is structured by words and pictures. In one characteristically if particularly poignant example of Kalman’s clever rhetorical excursions—He noticed the large stain right in the center of the rug (2004)—the artist illustrates the rules governing the proper placement of subjects and verbs with the non sequitur image of a classic murder mystery. By embracing difference, impermanence, and contradiction  “Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)” reveals the creative opportunity that every random moment affords.

"Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)" is on view at Contemporary Jewish Museum through October 26, 2010.

Megan McMillan lives in San Francisco where she continues to progress her passion for writing and her enthusiasm for the arts as an editorial intern for Art Practical.