Attempted Bloggery: Saul Steinberg: Three New Yorkers

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Saul Steinberg: Three New Yorkers

The great Saul Steinberg never learned to paint clouds.

--David Apatoff

"Steinberg's Clouds"

Illustration Art blog post for May 3, 2010

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2010/05/steinbergs-clouds.html

There are a couple of late pictures of California churches in which the structures seem so monumental and eternal that the rambunctious life around them is like a puff of air, and even the sky (his skies are very important and most of them seem to embody something special: maybe truth and beauty?) and the rest of nature seem trivialized.

--Red Grooms

"The World According to Steinberg," Review of Saul Steinberg's The Discovery of America

The New York Times Book Review, December 6, 1992

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/06/books/the-world-according-to-steinberg.html?scp=7&sq=red%20grooms%20saul%20steinberg&st=nyt&pagewanted=1

Sometimes Saul Steinberg's unusual treatment of the sky can be overwhelmed by the flashier elements of his compositions. Three New Yorkers is an offbeat 1976 drawing of his that I see as a grotesque elaboration on his paper masks. It allows us to see not only the three said New Yorkers as they apparently wish to present themselves, but also the Chrysler Building and the Guggenheim Museum, all through the uniquely transformative eyes of Steinberg. It is always a privilege to be invited into his fantastical—and, in this case, eccentric—world. And, yes, there are amazing clouds too, but here you would be forgiven for overlooking them at first glance.

This piece is coming up for auction on September 28 at sothebys.com. The estimate is $15,000-$20,000. Bidding starts at $10,000, although the reserve is apparently higher.