Untitled, 1972 
Pencil, watercolor, rubber stamps and embossed foil seal on paper 
14 1/2 x 23 inches
Courtesy of The Saul Steinberg Foundation


Selected by The Drawing Center

Saul Steinberg (b. 1914, Râmnicul Sarat, Romania, d. 1999, New York) produced drawings, sculptures, photographs, and collages that continue to elicit critical contemplation.

Having studied architecture in Milan, he fled wartime Italy in 1941 and became an American citizen two years later. Influenced by Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, and Pop, Steinberg’s varied output reflects the defiant humor, curiosity, and modernist attitude of an artist trying to make sense of the chaotic postwar period. Marked by a self-aware wit, his work embraces double meanings and philosophical content expressed through graphic means. Widely celebrated for his contributions to The New Yorker, Steinberg’s art became an exploration of social and political systems, language, and art itself.

Steinberg’s work is held in permanent collections internationally, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; The Baltimore Museum of Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Jewish Museum, New York; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.