Arts & Entertainment

The Pursuits

of Maira Kalman

In 2011, it wouldn't hurt to take a
cue from the brainy Israeli-born
painter/writer/blogger as she
explores modern life.

Eric Herschthal
New York Jewish Week

W

hen Barack Obama won the
presidency Maira Kalman was
thrilled. It was not only a fresh
start for America, she thought, but one for
her own work as well.
The New York Times was looking for
another assignment for Kalman after her
wildly successful illustrated blog, "The
Principles of Uncertainty' which document-
ed her own life, debuted in 2006.
"I was tired of talking about myself' said
Kalman, who was born in Israel and raised
in New York.
"I never cared much about U.S. history'
she admitted, but she thought Obama's his-
toric campaign might change that. Plus, she
added, "You can send me to any situation,
and I'll extract something out of it. There's
nothing I don't find interesting:'
The Times took her up on it, paying for
her trips across America to places like a mili-
tary base in Kentucky Thomas Jefferson's
Monticello, Lincoln's home in Springfield, Ill.,
and the White House.
The result was "And the Pursuit of
Happiness',' a monthly blog of her irreverent,
whimsical paintings that gave the artisfs
impression of democracy, with commentary.
Her yearlong investigation into democracy
and how it works was compiled for her
recently released new book, also called And
the Pursuit of Happiness (Penguin Press).
"Almost everything she does is surpris-
ing': said Mary Duenwald, the deputy editor
of the New York Times Op-Ed pages, who
worked with Kalman on the blog.
"It became not so much about democracy
as about her own musings about America"
In an entry for the "And the Pursuit of
Happiness" blog, Kalman gives a short tour
of American history that begins in England
with Thomas More.
"In 1535, Sir Thomas More, the author
of Utopia, a novel about a perfect society,
had a disagreement with King Henry VIII.

Maira Kalman in her studio

Henry had him beheaded": one
illustration reads, above a portrait
of More. ("So much for a perfect
society' it says beneath.)
That is followed by a portrait of
the Countess of Salisbury — also
beheaded by Henry VIII — whose
family fled to the New World.
Next comes a portrait of Alexis
Maira Kalman: Ruth Bader Ginsburg/
de Tocqueville (whose parents
Robe, 2009
were almost beheaded), with a few
words on Democracy in America
That is how she's managed
and town hall meetings; and, soon enough,
to
tackle contentious issues —
we're in present-day Vermont, at a town hall
American
politics, Israel — and
meeting in Newfane.
stay clear of controversy. And it
"Making art about history took me out of
myself' Kalman said."It forced me to look at may also be a key insight into
her craft. "I think you can make
our country and see what's wonderful and
the mistake of over-explaining
difficult about it:'
her," said the Times' Duenwald.
"My father was in the underground, in
Maira Kalman: Broken Chair in Tel Aviv, 2008
"She keeps things at a level
the Irgun," said the Israeli-born Kalman.
where the reader can take away
"He was a huge Zionist."
things in her own mind."
Both of her parents immigrated to
she said. Both her parents lost many relatives
Which is to say that, despite the weighty
Palestine in the 1930s. The family moved to
in the war, and that legacy has lent her work
subjects Kalman often illustrates, she is
Riverdale, N.Y., in 1954, when Kalman was
its unmistakable tenderness.
rarely didactic. Nor is she superficial. To the
just 4, so her father could expand his dia-
"What distinguishes her work is that it is
contrary: Fans often note how lightly she
mond business in New York, she said.
beautiful, but that it also has something to
wears her erudition. (Check out how her
But by the time she went to college, to
say' said Francoise Mouly, the art editor at
paintings enliven an illustrated version of
study literature at New York University, her
the New Yorker (and wife of comics artist Art
William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's classic
parents had moved back to Tel Aviv.
Spiegelman), which has published Kalman's
writers' guide, The Elements of Style.)
"My life was here, very much so',' she said.
work for more than 15 years.
Still, Israel is part of her makeup, too. She
Undoubtedly best known is the "New
keeps an apartment in Tel Aviv and even
Art - World Star
Yorkistan" cover, published three months
Commenting on her own art-making pro-
wrote a short illustrated blog about the city
after 9-11. Kalman collaborated on the cover
cess, Kalman said that she is a voracious
for the online magazine Tablet in 2008.
with Rick Meyerowitz, a fellow illustrator
reader who does extensive research before
Titled "My Tel AviV,' the series begins with
who is now her boyfriend.
she starts painting. But once she begins, she
a painting of a chalk-colored statue in a for-
That illustration came about, Kalman
lets her mind wander.
mal British-style garden, with the words, "It
recalled, while she and Meyerowitz were
"It makes me seem like an octopus' she
is not England," written above.
driving to a party in the Bronx shortly after
"Buf' — begins the next illustration — "it said, describing how her mind pulls from
the United States invaded Afghanistan.
various sources and multiple directions,
has a bookstore and a cafe every two feet.
"Everyone was talking about how tribal
And modern people reading books and writ- often at once.
[Afghanistan] was, and we were overwhelmed
Then she gets serious.
ing books. And eating pistachio cake'
by the tribal names in the Bronx no one's ever
"There's a vulnerability, an awareness that
Behind the text, an intellectual-looking
heard about': Kalman said. It would make a
woman in glasses does just that, with a green things are terribly fragile but also so beauti-
great New Yorker cartoon, they thought.
ful," she said.
dessert and thick brown book at her table.
The result was a map of the city's five bor-
That sensibility probably has something
When it comes to Israeli politics, she says,
oughs, with dozens of neighborhoods given
to do with the Holocaust, which her father
"I don't look at the big picture; I look at the
talked about often while she was growing up, exotic-sounding names: the Upper West Side
daily lifer

Maira Kalman on page 35

December 30 • 2010

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