Women Holding Things

Maira Kalman's paintings of women — holding lemons, sorrows, families, memories, friendships, and the quiet weight of daily life. What began as a small limited-edition booklet in 2021, which sold out immediately, has been expanded into this full collection of paintings and words: a meditation on the complexity of women's lives told through what they carry, literally and otherwise.

Kalman's figures are rendered with her characteristic warmth and wry precision — Virginia Woolf barely holding it together; a woman at a tea table holding on to a terrible mood from bad dreams the night before. Funny, tender, and genuinely moving. A book that rewards returning to.