Maira Kalman: Women Holding Things

The signed first edition of Maira Kalman's Women Holding Things (2021) is now sold out. I do not know the size of the edition, but the booklets sold for $75 including tax plus $5 for shipping. The project raised $100,000 for various charities fighting hunger. If $50, say, were set aside from the sale of each booklet for charity, the edition size would have to be 2000. If only $25 could be set aside, that would make the edition size a conjectured 4000. However the math worked out, Ms. Kalman clearly has a lot of devoted fans willing to bring this charitable effort to fulfillment at this price. The book was offered on Ms. Kalman's website with the following images:

 

Maira Kalman

https://mairakalman.com/shop/p/womenholdingthingssigned

Shipping was delayed for about a month at the printer. My copy arrived only last week:

Maira Kalman's signature

The balloon is glued into the back of the booklet. Should it be kept there to keep the book in its original pristine condition? It can easily be removed and this would allow the back cover of the book to sit better. If it is not removed, the balloon will very likely melt into the inside back cover of the book in the coming years. O the dilemmas of book collectors.

 

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A Signed Copy of Maira Kalman's My Favorite Things

What are illustrator Maira Kalman's favorite things? The cover of her 2014 book, My Favorite Things, may give us a fashionable hint or two. So may the drawing she made inside at least one autographed copy.

Maira Kalman
AbeBooks listing accessed February 10, 2021

https://www.abebooks.com/Favorite-Things-Kalman-Maira-Harper-Design/30838656293/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&cm_ite=viewbook

Note:  This book is no longer available from the seller.

Other Maira Kalman books containing sketches or, better still, examples of her original illustration art are potentially the stuff of blog posts yet unwritten. Admirers of this illustrator are encouraged to send images.

Some of my favorite things are right here on this blog. Many aren't. If you'd like for me to see some of your favorite things and possibly include them in future posts here, why not send me a photo or two? 

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Maira Kalman's Beloved Dog

On October 27th, illustrator Maira Kalman appeared at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side. She spoke of her mother, of her dog Pete who inspired the new book Beloved Dog, and of how she came to acquire Toscanini's pants. Afterwards there was a book signing in which she included a small drawing of a dog.

Maira Kalman at Barnes & Noble

Maira Kalman

Two signed books:

Promotional material from Ms. Kalman's website:

Maira Kalman, Beloved Dog

Signed bookplate

Beloved Dog by Myra Kalman

Note:  Promotional images of the book are taken from Maira Kalman's website.

There's more here on this blog about the art of Maira Kalman.

Arf! There's also more here about dogs.

Finally, this blog boasts an extensive virtual collection of signed books with original drawings. Perhaps you'd care to add one to the archive?

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Blue Booted Bulldog: Maira Kalman Original New Yorker Artwork

Maira Kalman's New Yorker cover illustration of a bulldog wearing blue rain boots was sold through the Julie Saul Gallery with the title "Bulldog." When it ran in the New Yorker, though, it had been given the title "Blue Dog." One suspects that at times the magazine's cover titles are assigned editorially and may not be the first choice of the artist.

Maira Kalman, Original artwork, "Bulldog"
The New Yorker, October 7, 2013

http://www.saulgallery.com/artists/maira-kalman/survey-2-new-feb-14#3

Maira Kalman, "Blue Dog"
The New Yorker, October 7, 2013

Note:  Over the years, this blog has collected quite a few examples of original New Yorker cover art. You'd better have a look.

While you're at it, don't miss these earlier posts featuring the art of Maira Kalman.

Dog lovers might enjoy this blog's many posts featuring man's best friend.

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New 2016 Calendars: The New Yorker and Edward Gorey

The new wall calendars for 2016 have arrived. They are probably on sale just about everywhere by now but I came across them over the weekend at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The New Yorker's 2016 entry calls itself The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016 which is nearly as awkward to read to yourself as it is to say out loud. The calendar's cover reproduces the 2012 Innovators Issue magazine cover "The Cloud" by Bob Staake. On the calendar's back cover, we get to see the magazine describe itself as "Iconic design. Iconic New Yorker." Apparently they left out the part about humble. Calendar covers are by Mark Ulriksen, Charles E. Martin, Maira Kalman, Jacques de Loustal, Birgit Schössow, Adolph K. Kronengold, Garrett Price, Christoph Niemann, Eric Drooker, Arthur Getz, Jorge Colombo, and once again Bob Staake. Helpful advice is offered for those who wish to "First hang it as a calendar--then frame it as art!" Let's face it: you could do worse.

The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016

The New Yorker Covers Poster Calendar 2016

Now the Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar describes the artist as "famous for masterful pen-and-ink cross-hatched drawings and ironic, offbeat humor."  While I might quibble a bit with the use of "cross-hatched" to describe the great variety of detailed pen-and-ink work for which Edward Gorey is acclaimed, I nevertheless find this calendar's blurb to be pretty accurate and without pretense. The cover illustration is a wonderful set-piece called "An Exhibition." I certainly would have no quibbles about gazing at an image of this quality every month.

Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar

Edward Gorey 2016 Calendar

Note:  You're in luck! This blog has a few posts on many of these artists:

Arthur Getz

Edward Gorey

Maira Kalman

Jacques de Loustal

Charles E. Martin

Christoph Niemann

Garrett Price

Bob Staake

Mark Ulriksen

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Maira Kalman: Remembrance of Things Proust

The January 21 issue of The New Yorker contains a Sketchbook page by Maira Kalman entitled Marcel's Way. This is not a typical stand-alone Sketchbook page, but rather an illustration specifically promoting the Morgan Library's new Marcel Proust show which commemorates the centennial of Swann's Way. This book, of course, is the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past, now often referred to by the new translation's title of In Search of Lost Time.

Ms. Kalman based her illustration on a studio photograph in the Morgan Library show which includes Proust, his mother, and his brother Robert circa 1895. The artist chose the bold colors red, pink, yellow, orange, and green, but she used muted colors to paint Marcel, which lets his figure retain more of the old world feel of the vintage photograph. Marcel is shown with his mother, a pairing of great interest to students of literature and, perhaps, of psychoanalysis. Marcel's younger brother Robert, the one who did not stay in his mother's home and write a great seven-volume masterwork in bed but instead became an eminent surgeon, author, and later the publisher of his brother's posthumous work, suffers the indignity of being replaced by a wooden stand and a potted plant.

The show "Marcel Proust and Swann's Way: 100th Anniversary" opens on February 15 at the Morgan Library and Museum and will run through April 28, 2013.

Maira Kalman, Sketchbook:  Marcel's Way
The New Yorker, January 21, 2013, Page 45

Marcel Proust and his mother and brother Robert, ca. 1895.
Bibliotheque Nationale de France (BnF), Paris, France
© BnF, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

The Morgan Library & Museum

http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?id=71

April 27, 2013 Update:  The original artwork (sans lettering) by Maira Kalman is available from the Julie Saul Gallery in New York. Tempting....

http://www.saulgallery.com/artists/maira-kalman/people#12

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