s.penkevich's Reviews > Women Holding Things

I’ve always dug Maira Kalman’s art. It’s folksy in the right way. Like if you had a cool, quirky aunt living in a cottage and when she sat you down to show you her paintings they didn’t suck. Women Holding Things is her latest collection of art and musings and reflects on the concept of holding things, be that physically, emotionally, artistically, existentially, ect. She reflects on how we hold our tasks, our family and history and more, juxtaposing sparse text often in poetic form with her lovely art. This is a lovely book to spend time with, absorbing her discourses on what we hold and gazing through the colorful artwork to feel the emotional charge she directs through the combination of mediums. I enjoyed how it dips into family history, even into the horrors of WWII, but also into famous people through history and even more abstract ideas about what objects—such as a chair—hold and how it relates to us. It does have a section about men near the end, which feels a bit awkward as if she feared criticisms for not addressing the emotions of men and seems rather tacked on, so that is rather unfortunate as women rarely seem to be given a space for themselves without it being infringed upon. But overall this is a charming book and I enjoy the art.


I like how this book feels like a visual poem, flowing from idea to idea along a current of artwork that complements the writing and vice versa. It never feels like the words are there to accommodate a reason for displaying the paintings, or the paintings there to flesh out the words, but a balanced partnership of both. We learn about her family, such as her grandparents and her parents fraught marriage, and we also learn about various women across history. There is some good wordplay along with the concept of holding things, such as these two below.

Gertrude Stein “holding true to herself” (left) and Virgina Woolf “barely holding it together” (right)

There are some excellent discussions on concepts such as time as well, and how it is something we simply cannot hold on to:

‘Finding time is all we want to do.
Once you find time, you want more time.
And more time in between that time.
There can never be enough time.
And you can never hold on to it.

It is so strange
We live. And then we die.
So unutterably strange.’

Another aspect I enjoyed was her discussion on communication and how we hold each other through our interactions. Particularly her mention ‘on some level, this lack of / communication feels like true / communication. Or that is how / I have come to think of it,’ and how this applies to the larger picture that what we hold shows what we value.

‘Objects around us hold
our attention and our love.

It is hard work
to hold everything
and it never ends.’

There are some great passages with ideas of objects, though the section on men seemed unnecessary. I would have preferred if the focus could have just been women as the title implies. I see how it is a tribute to the men in her life, or the lives of the women discussed, but that seemed already better suited to being framed through the women. Perhaps she felt she women would not be given the space, or perhaps it is a way of trying to accommodate everyone but it just felt misplaced in the book. Or, perhaps, she just needed a reason to have some of those paintings (the Chekov one is great), so who knows. Either way, I think the overall effect would have been just as good if not better had this section been cut.

Hortense Cézanne holding her own.

Kalman has made a delightful little book full of great art and ideas to ponder. I enjoyed spending some time with this for a few days and I suspect you will too. It is good to think about what we hold, and as Kalman mentions at the end, thinking about what we carry and why leads to thinking about the ideas around letting go.

3.75/5

‘And perhaps someone you are walking with
Will ask you to hold something for a minute
While they tie their shoelaces.

“Of course” is the answer.
“As long as you like.”