Steinberg, Saul, 1914-1999

Saul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American artist and illustrator, known for his visual commentary on American life created for The New Yorker magazine during the 1940s through 1990s, as well as for his drawings, paintings, collages, and sculpture. Steinberg was born on June 15, 1914 in Râmnicu Sărat, Romania, to Moritz Steinberg and Rosa Steinberg (née Jacobson). Steinberg had one older sister, Lica Roman (née Steinberg), born a year earlier. During Steinberg’s childhood, the family lived on Strada Palas in Bucharest, where Moritz Steinberg ran a small printing shop that manufactured cardboard packaging, exposing Steinberg to art and graphics from an early age.

Steinberg graduated from the Liceul Matei Basarab secondary school in 1932 and spent a year in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Bucharest, before applying to the Faculty of Architecture where he was denied admission, likely due to the university’s Jewish quota. After experiencing increasing anti-Semitism in Romania throughout his school years, Steinberg moved to Milan, Italy in 1933 and enrolled at the Regio Politecnico Milan to study architecture. There, Steinberg met Aldo Buzzi and began a lifelong friendship. In October 1936, Steinberg began contributing cartoons to the Italian humor newspaper Bertoldo. In 1937 Steinberg began a relationship with Ada Cassola Ongari (1908—1997). Steinberg continued to correspond with Ada after his immigration to the United States and later supported her financially. In April 1938, Steinberg moved his cartoons from Bertoldo to rival publication Settebello and served on the editorial board. With the adoption of the Italian racial laws in late 1938 which barred Jews from professional fields and higher education, Steinberg was prohibited from publishing his cartoons, though he continued to publish drawings anonymously. The Italian racial laws also ordered the expulsion of foreign born Jews, giving university students an exception until they completed their degrees. Steinberg received his architecture degree in 1940 and began looking for ways to leave the country.

With aid from American cousins and his New York agent Cesar Civita, Steinberg received a visa for the Dominican Republic in July 1940, but failed to receive required transit visas. Civita also helped Steinberg publish his first drawings in American periodicals in March 1940. By the end of 1940 Steinberg was considered an illegal resident and a state-less citizen. He was arrested in April 1941 and sent to a campo di concentramento (internment camp) in Tortoreto. Steinberg secured the necessary visas by June 1941 and immigrated to the Dominican Republic, where he awaited an American visa. While living in Santo Domingo, he published his first drawing in The New Yorker on October 25, 1941. After a year in Santo Domingo, he received his American visa, and arrived in New York in July 1942. In 1943 Steinberg received a commission as an ensign in the US Naval Reserve and his US citizenship simultaneously. Before beginning his service in May 1943, Steinberg met fellow Romanian artist and émigré Hedda Sterne (1910-2011). Steinberg and Sterne married a year later, on October 11, 1944. During World War II, Steinberg was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and served in China, Algeria, and Italy where he prepared pictorial propaganda against the German front. While abroad he continued to create drawings for The New Yorker, documenting the experience of service men at war. Steinberg was ordered back to the Washington, D.C. OSS office in fall 1944 and continued serving the OSS through the end of his active duty in December 1945.With aid from American cousins and his New York agent Cesar Civita, Steinberg received a visa for the Dominican Republic in July 1940, but failed to receive required transit visas. Civita also helped Steinberg publish his first drawings in American periodicals in March 1940. By the end of 1940 Steinberg was considered an illegal resident and a state-less citizen. He was arrested in April 1941 and sent to a campo di concentramento (internment camp) in Tortoreto. Steinberg secured the necessary visas by June 1941 and immigrated to the Dominican Republic, where he awaited an American visa. While living in Santo Domingo, he published his first drawing in The New Yorker on October 25, 1941. After a year in Santo Domingo, he received his American visa, and arrived in New York in July 1942. In 1943 Steinberg received a commission as an ensign in the US Naval Reserve and his US citizenship simultaneously. Before beginning his service in May 1943, Steinberg met fellow Romanian artist and émigré Hedda Sterne (1910-2011). Steinberg and Sterne married a year later, on October 11, 1944. During World War II, Steinberg was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and served in China, Algeria, and Italy where he prepared pictorial propaganda against the German front. While abroad he continued to create drawings for The New Yorker, documenting the experience of service men at war. Steinberg was ordered back to the Washington, D.C. OSS office in fall 1944 and continued serving the OSS through the end of his active duty in December 1945.

Steinberg settled in New York where he established himself as a sought-after illustrator for American periodicals and advertising. Steinberg and Sterne were part of a large circle of artists, writers, musicians, publishers, and collectors, including many fellow Romanian, French, and Italian émigrés. Steinberg traveled frequently, including U.S. road trips and yearly travel to Italy and France, where he often stayed for months visiting friends, preparing exhibitions, and visiting his family who settled in France in the 1950s. His travel often included pictorial research for New Yorker features or other commissions. In May 1959, Steinberg purchased a Long Island home in Amagansett which became his refuge from life in New York. Hedda Sterne and Steinberg separated in 1960, but never divorced, remaining close friends until his death. In July 1960, Steinberg began a relationship with Sigrid Spaeth (1936-1996), a German design and photography student. Though they lived together only intermittently at Steinberg’s Amagansett residence, Steinberg and Spaeth maintained a sometimes-fraught relationship until her death in 1996. Steinberg kept residences and studios in New York and Amagansett and continued to produce work through the 1990s. In 1969, Steinberg hired Dutch artist Anton van Dalen, who worked for him as a studio assistant until his death. Steinberg died of pancreatic cancer on May 12, 1999 in New York.Steinberg settled in New York where he established himself as a sought-after illustrator for American periodicals and advertising. Steinberg and Sterne were part of a large circle of artists, writers, musicians, publishers, and collectors, including many fellow Romanian, French, and Italian émigrés. Steinberg traveled frequently, including U.S. road trips and yearly travel to Italy and France, where he often stayed for months visiting friends, preparing exhibitions, and visiting his family who settled in France in the 1950s. His travel often included pictorial research for New Yorker features or other commissions. In May 1959, Steinberg purchased a Long Island home in Amagansett which became his refuge from life in New York. Hedda Sterne and Steinberg separated in 1960, but never divorced, remaining close friends until his death. In July 1960, Steinberg began a relationship with Sigrid Spaeth (1936-1996), a German design and photography student. Though they lived together only intermittently at Steinberg’s Amagansett residence, Steinberg and Spaeth maintained a sometimes-fraught relationship until her death in 1996. Steinberg kept residences and studios in New York and Amagansett and continued to produce work through the 1990s. In 1969, Steinberg hired Dutch artist Anton van Dalen, who worked for him as a studio assistant until his death. Steinberg died of pancreatic cancer on May 12, 1999 in New York.

Steinberg was best known for his regular contributions to The New Yorker, including over 80 covers between 1945-1999, but also created textile designs, stage sets, and murals. His most famous work, View of the World from 9th Avenue, was published as a New Yorker cover on March 29, 1976. In 1960, Steinberg began to focus primarily on gallery exhibitions and New Yorker illustrations. His work was first exhibited as part of The Museum of Modern Art’s 1946 exhibition “Fourteen Americans”. In 1952 the Betty Parsons and Sidney Janis Galleries jointly mounted his first solo show and then served as his American dealers until 1981. Steinberg was represented in France by Galerie Maeght which gave him a wide international audience. New York-based Pace Gallery began representing him in the United States in 1981. Steinberg had more than eighty solo shows in the United States, Europe, and South America, including a 1978 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. His also published compilations of drawings including All in Line (1945), The Art of Living (1949), The Passport (1954), Umgang mit Menschen (1954), The Labyrinth (1960), The Catalogue (1962), The New World (1965), Le Masque (1966), The Inspector (1973), Dal Vero (1983), and Discovery of America (1992). Steinberg worked primarily in pen and ink in his early years, then explored collage, watercolor, oil paint, and wood sculpture, and frequently used rubber stamps and collected ephemera. Steinberg’s work is difficult to categorize and includes qualities of abstract expressionism, pop art, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Cubism. Steinberg’s work includes observations of modernity and post-war America that explore political, sociological, or cultural ideas, often through humor, metaphor and cliché. Other themes in his work include architecture, maps, faux-calligraphy and false documents, urban and small-town life, and art making.