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.

Found Collections: Arrowheads

The instinct for humans to accumulate arrowheads is, no doubt, of a primal order. Equally instinctive, must be the need to arrange them once collected. And, indeed, no matter how simple, intricate, or even haphazard an array of arrowheads might be, we will most likely find it pleasurable to behold.

























For more beautiful ammunition, see the cartridge boards posted a while back.
Images are from sales and auction sites.

mourning papers

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Class Photos: University of Iowa College of Dentistry

The University of Iowa has a vast and varied digital archive to explore. Included are over 80 years (1883-1967) of graduating-class photo boards from the College of Dentistry.

The early years, of course, have the most interesting boards, and not only for visual variety. I couldn’t help noticing a perplexing change in the number of women graduates over the years. During the first 40 years, 34 women earned degrees, with the classes of 1888 and 1902 graduating five women each. From 1925 through 1967, however, there were a total of seven female graduates--over the entire 42 years! I'm not quite sure which of those stats I find more surprising. Today, 40% of students at the College of Dentistry are women. Drill, baby, drill.