From the critically acclaimed artist designer and author of the bestsellers The Principles of
Uncertainty and My Favorite Things comes a wondrous collection of words and paintings that is a
moving meditation on the beauty and complexity of women's lives and roles revealed in the
things they hold. ?What do women hold? The home and the family. And the children and the food.
The friendships. The work. The work of the world. And the work of being human. The memories.
And the troubles. And the sorrows and the triumphs. And the love.? In the spring of 2021 Maira
and Alex Kalman created a small limited-edition booklet ?Women Holding Things ? which featured
select recent paintings by Maira accompanied by her insightful and deeply personal commentary.
The booklet quickly sold out. Now the Kalmans have expanded that original publication into
this extraordinary visual compendium. Women Holding Things includes the bright bold images
featured in the booklet as well as an additional sixty-seven new paintings highlighted by
thoughtful and intimate anecdotes recollections and ruminations. Most are portraits of women
both ordinary and famous including Virginia Woolf Sally Hemings Hortense Cezanne Gertrude
Stein as well as Kalman's family members and other real-life people. These women hold a range
of objects from the mundane?balloons a cup a whisk a chicken a hat?to the abstract?dreams
and disappointments sorrow and regret joy and love. Kalman considers the many things that fit
physically and metaphorically between women's hands: We see a woman hold a book hold shears
hold children hold a grudge hold up hold her own. In visually telling their stories Kalman
lays bare the essence of women's lives?their tenacity courage vulnerability hope and pain.
Ultimately she reveals that many of the things we hold dear?as well as those that burden or
haunt us?remain constant and connect us from generation to generation. Here too are pictures
of a few men holding things such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Anton Chekhov as well as objects
holding other objects that invite us to ponder their intimate relationships to one another.
Women Holding Things explores the significance of the objects we carry?in our hands hearts
and minds?and speaks to and for all of us. Maira Kalman's unique work is a celebration of
life of the act and the art of living offering an original way of examining and understanding
all that is important in our world?and ultimately within ourselves.
