Artist Maira Kalman’s beloved dog comes to life in a mural at the Israel Museum.
By ARIEL DOMINIQUE HENDELMANArtist Maira Kalman(photo credit: RICK MEYEROWITZ)
Maira Kalman is a Jane of all trades and a master of many. As an illustrator, writer, and designer, the Israeli-born Kalman has graced countless covers of The New Yorker and written and illustrated myriad books, the most well-known of which is Fireboat.One of the most remarkable aspects of Kalman as an artist is her being comfortable in the world of adults and children. She has written and illustrated 18 children’s books, as well as having contributed two columns to The New York Times, which were subsequently collected into book form.“I thought I was going to be a writer when I read Pippi Longstocking as a child and realized that there was this job that was called a writer and you could create characters like this heroic girl, Pippi,” Kalman recalls. “I was writing a lot, but then when I got to college, my writing became angst-ridden and embarrassing. Art looked easy and fun, so I started drawing in a kind of naive, cartoony way, very influenced by Saul Steinberg. So I became an illustrator, because I like the idea of having an assignment and of being a journalist, which is something I still consider myself. I’m a visual essayist or a journalist without words.”Kalman’s versatile talent is currently on display in the Israel Museum’s Youth Wing Illustration Library, where the artist created a large-scale mural as part of the exhibit, “Cats and Dogs,” curated by Orna Granot. The exhibit opened on June 2 with a talk from the artist.“I chose a series of photographs by Elliott Erwitt, who was a great dog photographer,” Kalman explains. “I chose those to be on one wall and painted a mural on the facing wall, with a dialogue between the two. I did drawings of his photographs and other drawings. I designed a few dog toys to be in the room and also puzzles and blocks, so that it’s an interactive place for children, a playful place to play and read. Doing the mural was fun; a delightful surprise. Orna understood that I needed to be alone to work on the mural. I need my space and that was wonderful.”The mural was inspired by Kalman’s book Beloved Dog and also by Erwitt’s photos, which came from the museum’s collection. Out of 70, Kalman chose 30, from which she created her own narrative on the mural in a nonlinear fashion. “What’s really unique about this project is that she had to really challenge herself,” Granot states. “She’s very comfortable with words, but with this project, a central part was that it needed to be without words. So many people here don’t read English, or children who may not be able to read, and we wanted it to be accessible to everyone. I think the most unique, playful and surprising part of the project is that it has this non-verbal aspect to it.”Kalman did sneak some words in here and there about Gertrude Stein and Kafka, in her whimsical way. But the dogs are everywhere; they seem to jump off the walls of the mural, in and out of the books, and onto the blocks which Kalman created specially for the exhibit. Giving the experience a truly interactive quality, Kalman drew on blocks to create 3D puzzles of dogs.She also created her own modest tribute to Erwitt with her own photographs of dogs, acting as a memory game for children or other visitors who want a more hands-on experience. There are also black and white posters of the mural with which visitors can engage; enabling them to find the dogs from the photographs in the poster, or to color and write on it. The diversity of the art mediums in the exhibit itself speaks to who Kalman is as an artist.“I’ve been following Maira’s work for many years,” Granot adds. “She is truly amazing, not just that her art is very impressive, but that she has this rare ability to tell a story through words, pictures, and design. Her ability to tell stories to adults and children in a sincere and honest way is really a rare commodity. She is able to convey to both of these audiences in the same artistic vocabulary. When you look at what she’s been doing over the years, you can see in the list how diverse she is. It goes back to her ability to execute really diverse artistic works. This is what makes her pretty remarkable.”In Beloved Dog, Kalman talks about her own history with dogs and how terrified she once was of them before she got one of her own. “I believed that they would rip your head off,” Kalman recalls. “Then my husband was ill and we decided that a dog would be great for our children. So we got one and it changed my life. He became my best friend, mood elevator, confidant, and muse. I painted him constantly and he was the source of a lot of joy, love, and comfort, plus work and money. It really opened up my life.”Kalman emphasizes that the relationship that one can have with a dog was entirely new and surprising to her. It allowed her to enter an artistic phase of different subjects and to create portraits of dogs in a way she hadn’t done before. As a result, Kalman still has people asking to commission her for portraits of their dogs; requests that she occasionally obliges. She highlights terriers, french bulldogs, and wire hair dachshunds as her favorite dogs to draw. “But I can’t think of a dog that I wouldn’t be happy to do a painting of.”Kalman drew the large-scale mural at the Israel Museum free hand, in her signature style. At the opening, she spoke about her artwork and said there is no distinction between her life and her work.“I wanted my life to be my work, my travels, my family, my sorrows, the beautiful things that I see when I take walks, which are very important to me,” Kalman says. “Those are the things that I talked about and the projects that come out of them. It could be a book, or an opera, or a ballet.”Kalman is actually working on a ballet now, in partnership with a choreographer. She is serving as the writer plus set and costume designer. Kalman will also be in the ballet itself, which is based on one of her books, The Principles of Uncertainty. It will premier in August at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires, before moving on to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.In her multifaceted style, Kalman has many irons in the fire when it comes to future projects. She is currently finishing a book about cakes with author Barbara Scott Goodman. Goodman writes the recipes, while Kalman provides paintings and stories of memories of cakes throughout her life.Yet another project involves the release of a new, illustrated edition of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. “That’s a wonderful project coming up. Gertrude had two dogs, a poodle and a dachshund, and she loved her dogs very much. There is a wonderful quote that I have from her on the wall, ‘I am I because my little dog knows me.’ That’s a quote to live by.”When asked about the breadth of her work, Kalman replies, “I can be a journalist, a writer, a painter and a designer. I like the idea that there are no limits.”Although she does not currently have a dog due to traveling too much for her various projects, she is open to the possibility in the future. She remarks that there was something unique about her relationship with Pete, who has been immortalized in many of her books, that cannot be duplicated. But who knows what inspiration a new canine companion might bring?Kalman is also open to the possibility that her future travels would bring her back to the Israel Museum. Although Kalman visits Israel every year and keeps an apartment in Tel Aviv, this was the first time that she took part in an exhibit at the museum. “I think it’s such an extraordinary museum, completely fantastic, and I’m delighted to be here,” Kalman adds.“The initial idea for the “Cats and Dogs” exhibit was to explore this idea of being either a cat person or a dog person,” Granot says. “Then, more than that, people who actually have and love both will tell stories about how they get along. It’s a very dynamic relationship.“I thought, aside from the fact that many people love dogs or hate cats, there is a very strong connection to children and other matters that we don’t usually address in the youth wing that I think are very valuable. We can be preachy with children in terms of how to deal with conflict, but here was an opportunity to address conflict through art and representation. To look at differences and behavioral preferences. I don’t need to explain to kids what the subject is – they understand it immediately.”Perhaps there is something to learn about overcoming conflict from an artist who so seamlessly transitions among mediums, genres, and age groups with such bold and waggish sincerity.Kalman’s mural will be on display at the Israel Museum through October. For the hours of the illustration library, as well as options for guided tours, visit the museum website: www.imj.org.il/en/For more information on the artist herself, visit her site: www.mairakalman.com/