Masque, 1966

Steinberg Saül  

Born in Râmnicu S? Rat in Romania on June 15, 1914 in a Jewish family and died in New York on May 12, 1999, is an American artist, cartoonist and illustrator.

He is particularly famous for his work for the New Yorker magazine. He was a draftsman with a simple style but sharp and efficient. He tried all the graphic techniques of sculpture and collage.

He enrolled at the Polytechnic of Milan, where he graduated in 1940 in architecture. During these years in Milan, he published satirical drawings in the magazine Bertoldo (it). His very incisive spirit is already present and noticed since his work appears in the magazines Life and Harper's Bazaar.

In 1941 he began to publish in the New Yorker. This association will last for nearly sixty years and Steinberg will produce 90 magazine covers, 635 drawings and publish nearly 1,200 of his works.

His first solo exhibition was held at the Wakefield Gallery in 1943 in New York. Three years later, he was among the Fourteen Americans to be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York with Arshile Gorky, Isamu Noguchi, or Robert Motherwell.

He becomes a true ambassador of American art in the world and engages in a long series of exhibitions in galleries, in the largest museums, American or international exhibitions. In France, his work is exhibited many times at the Maeght gallery in Paris.

In 1956, he shared with Millôr Fernandes the first prize at the international exhibition of caricatures in Buenos Aires.

Steinberg uses a wide variety of media, using several media at the same time on a single image (pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, oil, gouache, watercolor, collage, etc.). Inventor of a personal calligraphy, where writing takes on the value of drawing, his art is tinged with irony and affection but always with mastered virtuosity. In particular, it manufactures documents, passports, diplomas and other certificates.

Steinberg explored social and political systems, human weaknesses, geography, architecture, language, and art itself. An important part of his work is related to official documents, passports, diplomas, signatures etc. hijacked.

The idea of disguise being a central point of his work, Steinberg therefore uses the mask since, for him, everyone wears a mask, real or metaphorical.