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Saul Steinberg

"The drawing is a kind of reasoning on paper."

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Notes of biography

Saul Jacobson, become later Steinberg, was born in Romania in 1914. In 1933, he studies during one year philosophy at the University of Bucharest. He is registered at the Reggio Politecnico of architecture (Milan) and receives its diploma in 1940. During the Thirties, Saul Steinberg publishes its satirical drawings in the review Bertoldo (Milan) ; the very incisive spirit of its work already present and is noticed.
In 1940, its work appears in the reviews Life and Harper Bazaar. The Italian anti-Jewish laws push him to emigrate in the United States. He starts, since 1941, to publish in New Yorker. This association will continue during sixty years, and Steinberg will produce at the same time 90 covers of the magazine and will publish more than 1200 of its works which will raise its popular graphic language with the row of true art.
Its first personal exhibition will be held in 1943 in New York (Wakefield Gallery). Three years later, he is among the "Fourteen Americans" who expose their work to the Museum of Modern art of New York, at the sides of Arshile Gorki, Isamu Noguchi or Robert Motherwell. This period is the beginning of the immense list of exhibitions in gallery or in the largest museums, American and international shows. He becomes a true ambassador of American art in the world. Thus, in France, Steinberg will appear many times on the walls of the Gallery Maeght (Paris, St Paul de Vence).
The artist uses for his art a broad range of means, generally being useful himself of several "media" on a simple image (ink, pencil, charcoal, colouring pencil, watercolour, oil, gouache, collage, etc). The idea of the disguise being central to its art, Saul Steinberg will work on the mask since, for him, each one carries a mask, truth or metaphorical. Its famous cover of New Yorker, in 1976, where he traces a map of Manhattan which refers to a mental geography places Steinberg with the rank of artist more loved by American and, particularly, for the inhabitants of New York.
The extraordinary imagination of Steinberg enabled him to explore the social and political systems, the human weaknesses, the geography, architecture, the language and naturally art itself. Its art dyes sometimes affection, often of irony, but always with a control of virtuoso. Inventor of a writing which takes value of drawing, true personal "calligraphie", Steinberg will manufacture "documents", diplomas, passports and other certificates, which will open all the doors of art to him.
Saul Steinberg died in 1999.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
Non réalisé à ce jour. All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Steinberg », DLM, n° 192, Jacques Dupin, Ed. Galerie Maeght, Juin. 1971
  • « Steinberg », DLM, n° 205, H. Damisch, Ed. Galerie Maeght, Sept. 1973
  • « S. : Drawing into Being », A. Glimcher & B. Rose, Ed PaceWildenstein, NY, 1999
  • « Reflections and shadows », Aldo Buzzi, Ed. Random House, 2002
  • « Steinberg at The New Yorker », Joel Smith, Ed. Harry N. Abrams, NY, 2005
  • « Saul Steinberg: L’Écriture visuelle », Ed. Musée Tomi Ungerer, Strasbourg 2009
  • « Descent from Paradise : S. Steinberg’s Italian Years, 1933-1941 », M. T. Lalli, 2011
  • « Saul Steinberg: A Biography », Deirdre Bair, Ed. Nan A. Talese, 2012
  • « S. S., 100th Anniv. Exhibition », J. Smith, Ed.The Pace Gallery and Pace/MacGill, 2014
  • « Along the lines, Saul Steinberg », Chris Ware, Ed. Art Institute of Chicago, 2017
To read from the artist :
  • « Lettere a Aldo Buzzi, 1945-1999 », Ed. Adelphi, Milan, 2002
  • « Saul Steinberg : Outsider Extraordinaire », video, J. Brodie, Nat. Gallery of Art, 2018
Website :
http://www.saulsteinbergfoundation.org

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Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

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