Maira's World

Edith Sitwell

As if you really need me to tell you to go see the Maira Kalman show that’s now up at the Jewish Museum in New York.

New Yorkistan

There will be work you know (whether you know it or not).

Pina Bausch

And work you’ll wonder why you’ve never seen before.

But the paintings are only part of the story. The show of some 100 artworks is part retrospective, part installation.

Herring and Philosophy Club

So not only do we get to see the lovely color and brushiness of Kalman’s gouaches in the flesh ...


we get to view treasured objects from her personal cabinet of curiosities.

Like the famous onion ring collection she assembled with her late husband, Tibor Kalman, along with other objects by the design duo.

MoMA Moves to Queens
Philippe

Kalman’s influences—Steinberg, Matisse, Hockney, even Duchamp—waft through the airy galleries. You will meet her many literary and historic inspirations as well.




Kalman savors the perfection of
things as they are.
Be it a map of the U.S. drawn by
her immigrant mother …
A package tied with string …
Or a shoebox (size 7½ B) of mosses.

Lady Birley

Kalman uses fashion almost as a language, and with it, she communicates volumes. She is absolutely fluent in hats. Many wonderful hats appear throughout her work, along with shoes, stoles, lace collars and lingerie.

Pink Dress

And for goodness’ sake, where else will you find a pale salmon summer dress, embroidered with the first lines of Dante’s Inferno?


Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)
The Jewish Museum, 1109 5th Ave at 92nd St., New York
Through July 31, 2011

Have you read Ken Johnsons’s sexist review of the show in the New York Times? I’d be interested in hearing what others thought about it.

Livia's Laurels

Death of Lord Byron

Joseph-Denis Odevaere

XXXV.

Ferrara! in thy wide and grass-grown streets, Whose symmetry was not for solitude, There seems as t'were a curse upon the seats of former sovereigns, and the antique brood of Este, which for many an age made good

Its strength within thy walls, and was of yore Patron or tyrant, as the changing mood Of petty power impell'd, of those he wore The wreath which Dante's brow alone had worn before.

XLI.

The lightning rent from Ariosto's bust The iron crown of laurel's mimic'd leaves; Nor was the ominous element unjust.

For the true laurel wreath which glory weaves is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves, And the false semblance but disgraced his brow; Yet still, if fondly superstition grieves, Know that the lightning sanctifies below Whate'er it strikes yon head is doubly sacred now.

from CHILDE HAROLD"S PILGRIMAGE

**Byron's Wreath of Laurel**

Wreaths of laurel on a victor's brow began with Livia Drusilla, wife of Caesar Augustus. "A hen of remarkable whiteness... was holding in its beak a laurel branch bearing its berries" and dropped the branch at Livia's feet. From this time onward, the bird and her offspring resided in nests, at the Poultry on the Tiber where the laurel branch was planted and propagated..."The laurel grove so begun has thriven in a marvelous way..."



From this time, all the Caesars appeared in triumph & held a laurel branch from the original tree in his hand and wore laurel wreath upon his head-and planted the branch. Pliny the Elder

Caesar Augustus

detail from Vermeer's The Art of Painting

close up of Clio, Muse of History

Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Laurel Wreath

Rosalba Giovanna Carriera

Da Vinci's Wreath of Laurel, Palm and Juniper

Dante Alighieri by Sandro Botticelli

try one of Livia's laurels on.

Cesar

Helena







Amour





all by

Louis Mariette

"Nod to ancient elegance in Louis Mariette's detailed headbands. Take inspiration from the classics and pair it with a draped maxi dress for the ultimate in Grecian glamour." from net a porter

** ** Byron's Wreath of Laurel photograph from (here) and Patrick Hunt (here)