Salty Lemons

March 28, 2011

Language

Take advantage of Free Saturdays at The Jewish Museum and see Maira Kalman's first museum survey. (Note: the gift shop is closed because of the Sabbath, no cash transactions.)

She and I have something in common, a fondness for Presidential Portraits and language. During a critique in graduate school, it was debated whether language and visual art could or should be combined. Some people argued yes, and others no. Maira Kalman illustrates that it can be done and should be done if you can do it like her. Everything is deliberate, each letter, each line break, each bit of punctuation. One room in the exhibition is dedicated to a collection of items from her home that she curated herself. In a glass case sits an assortment of rags with a typed index card that reads:

paint rags
on
linens taken
quietly from
hotels.
I stared, reread, reread again, smiled, reread, then immediately ran around looking for The Swede and our friends to show them. "It says quietly, isn't that so clever?" They did get a kick out of it, but not as much as I did.

I learned of Kalman through a Colleague while browsing through a bookstore to pass the time while waiting for a train. I instantly forgot her name, but not her work. Lucky me, I came across her books again and again until her name stuck. Her latest book is generously filled with works of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, two Presidents I use as inspiration in my own work. On a separate work trip to The Capital, I debated for far too long about whether or not to buy a George Washington cross-stitch kit for $12. I decided against it, never forgot about it, then bought it one year later when I returned. Maira would be proud.

archives: Art