Maira Kalman is a New York-based artist, illustrator, writer and designer who has built a career driven by relentless curiosity. Her work doesn’t so much follow a straight line as wander, meander and double back – gathering fragments and capturing vignettes along the way. To quote from the opening of her 2007 TED talk:
“In the course of my life, I never know what’s going to happen.”
The result is a body of visually very appealing work that feels less like a portfolio and more like a cabinet of curiosities: illustrated books, exhibitions, textile designs, children’s stories, designed objects and meditations on everything from democracy to dogs.
Born in Israel and raised in New York, Maira came of age in a creative milieu that prized experimentation and an openness to the possibilities of “not knowing”. Her late husband, Tibor Kalman (1949–1999), was a storied graphic designer and co-founder of the influential design firm M&Co. (the "M" actually stands for Maira), known for its irreverent, ideas-driven approach. Together, they shared a life and a sensibility that blurred the boundaries between high and low culture, seriousness and play. Tibor’s legacy (he also co-founded COLORS magazine [RR6:10] for Benetton) – particularly his insistence that design should provoke thought (and action) as much as please the eye – echoes throughout Maira’s work, even decades after his death. Indeed, Tibor and Maira worked together from the very beginning and influenced each other in profound ways.
What makes Maira so distinctive and refreshing is her refusal to be pigeon-holed. She has written and illustrated over 30 books for both children (e.g. What Pete ate from A to Z, 2001) and adults (e.g. The Elements of Style, 2005). In 2009 she created a celebrated visual column for The New York Times – “And the Pursuit of Happiness” – which paired gouache paintings with philosophical reflections on American democracy. She has illustrated many covers for The New Yorker magazine, including the iconic post-9/11 New Yorkistan cover with Rick Meyerowitz in 2001 [RR1:49].
Her collaborations with her son Alex Kalman, co-founder and director of Mmuseumm [R5:52], traverse a bewildering range of projects – films, products, books and textiles – and include a reproduction of her mother's closet called Sara Berman's Closet for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She has also enjoyed notable collaborations with David Byrne, Isaac Mizrahi, Mark Morris, Michael Pollan and others.
Each project feels like it could only exist because she happened to be interested in that particular thing at that particular moment. There is, at first glance, a randomness to all of this [Ed: “Random” is something that Remo understands and appreciates] – a sense that Maira simply follows her whims wherever they lead. But that’s precisely the point. Her curiosity and courage to follow through with the unexpected is the golden thread.
Each new Maira project delivers a surprise. In her hands, randomness becomes a kind of philosophy: pay attention, follow your interests, and trust that meaning will emerge along the way. To quote Maira, once again from her 2007 TED talk:
"I’m trying to figure out two very simple things: how to live and how to die, period. That's all I'm trying to do – all day long.”
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References
mairakalman.com
wikipedia.org/wiki/Maira_Kalman
printmag.com/daily-heller
guggenheim.org/articles/checklist/something-essential-a-q-and-a-with-maira-kalman
nytimes.com/2024/11/21/style/maira-kalman-new-book-remorse
Images
1. Maira Kalman Self Portrait with Pete from The Elements of Style, 2005
2. Maira Kalman in her studio. Photo Credit: Kimisa H
3. Book: And the Pursuit of Happiness, 2010
4. Book: What Pete ate from A to Z, 2001
5. 10.1.4 M&Co. watch, 1984
6. Backdrop for American Utopia, 2019. Collaboration with David Byrne.
7. Tibor Kalman
8. Book: The Illustrated Elements of Style, 2005
9. Book: Women Holding Things, 2022
10. New Yorkistan New Yorker cover, 10 December 2001
11. Video: "Maira Kalman: The illustrated woman", TED 2007
12. Video: "Sara Berman’s Closet", The New Yorker, 2018
