Images from Kalman’s books for adults are included, such as an illustrated edition of Strunk and White’s classic grammar guide, The Elements of Style. In it, Kalman imagines scenes for some of the book’s wonderfully quirky sample phrases and its sage rules (The encouragement to “Be obscure clearly! Be wild of tongue in a way we can understand.” is the inspiration for Chocolate and Champagne Party). The work Man Dances on Salt became the well-known cover for The Principles of Uncertainty, a picture book of essays based on a yearlong column for The New York Times devoted to her musings on life’s complexities, absurdities, and joys. “That column was the greatest thing because it talked about how nobody knows what’s going on, but we keep going on,” says Kalman. Soldier, a portrait of a soon-to-be-deployed soldier at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is one of the works on view from her second online epic for The Times (soon to be released as a book) And the Pursuit of Happiness, which wanders through the subject of democracy in America.
Covers and drawings for The New Yorker are a highlight of the exhibition. “What distinguishes her work is that it is beautiful, but that it also has something to say,” says Francoise Mouly, the art editor at The New Yorker. Kalman’s widely celebrated cartoon map of New Yorkistan (created with cartoonist Richard Meyerowitz), provided a welcome burst of humor after 9/11 with its tongue-in-cheek tribal territories like Pashmina, Irant, Irate, Kvetchnya, and Botoxia. Her cover illustration Dog Reads Book is one that the artist considers a self-portrait of sorts. Misery Day Parade, in which one marcher wears an “I feel rotten” button while another carries a flag for the “Paralyzed with Panic Brigade” was the result of watching a parade on Fifth Avenue. “I thought it looked terribly phony,” she says. “What if people paraded in the way they really felt, I wondered.”
Other works for magazines include a series called "Mad About the Met" for Departures, Aalto Vase with Poppies for The New York Times Style Magazine, an illustrated essay on Vita Sackville-West’s legendary garden for Culture + Travel, a portrait of Dolce & Gabbana’s yellow Labradors and other fashion pet portraits for Interview and My Tel Aviv for Tablet.
Also in the exhibition are a number of works on textile, an area that has increasingly been of interest to Kalman. Her Spilt Milk is one of a number of clichés she has embroidered onto linen napkins after being told by a physic, “Don’t cry over split milk.”
A relatively more secret aspect of Kalman’s identity is the “M” in M&Co, the revolutionary design firm founded by her late husband, Tibor Kalman, with whom she was a constant collaborator. Many of the objects they created together such as the firm’s famous 10-One-4 watch based on one of her doodles are featured as part of Kalman’s installation of objects.
Kalman has often collaborated on design projects such as the fabrics she created with longtime friend and neighbor, fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi. “Besides being the greatest artist in the world, she is the greatest arbiter of all things,” says Mizrahi. Her other collaborators have included the textile company Maharam, Pucci (mannequins), Kate Spade (cosmetic bags) and Mark Morris (stage sets). Yet another collaborative effort was Kalman’s recent mini-opera created with composer and art-rock celebrity Nico Muhly based on her illustrated The Elements of Style, performed with an ensemble of musicians playing teacups, slinkys, and typewriters. Elements of many of these projects will be displayed in her object installation as well as in short films created by her son Alex Kalman.
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