Saul Steinberg: Santa Playing the Violin

Santa Playing the Violin is a black and white Christmas card by Saul Steinberg published by the Museum of Modern Art. The museum published annual Steinberg Christmas cards from 1945 through 1951, according to the Saul Steinberg Foundation's website. In 1952, he signed a more lucrative contract with Hallmark, yet MoMA was to publish this final card in 1953. The cards are scarce, indicating they've never been reissued despite their timeless appeal. This example was sold in 2018 for a reasonable $9.95. 

https://www.antiquesnavigator.com/d-2958374/1953-saul-steinberg-christmas-card-%E2%80%93-santa-playing-the-violin--unused.html

Note:  Thanks again to David from Manhattan, who wrote yesterday's post and guided me down the path to today's. 

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Betty Parsons's Copy of Fourteen Americans Signed by Saul Steinberg

Fourteen Americans was published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1946 concurrently with an exhibition. The catalogue is long out of print, but MoMa keeps a PDF of their file copy online. Saul Steinberg was included in the show. It is helpful to see the catalogue's cover as published before seeing how Steinberg embellished a copy for his gallerist Betty Parsons.

https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3196_300062046.pdf

Steinberg personalized Parsons's copy using a blue-colored pencil. The book's cover has some evidence of exposure to dampness over the years. Still it is quite remarkable what Steinberg has done:

Photo by Joe Petro III

Let's go back to MoMA's file copy. The list of the fourteen artists offers proof, if any were needed, that Steinberg was the penultimate American:

https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3196_300062046.pdf

The title page:

https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3196_300062046.pdf

There are two pages devoted to Saul Steinberg's work:

https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3196_300062046.pdf

https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3196_300062046.pdf

Note:  My thanks again go to Joe Petro III for photographing the cover of Betty Parsons's book. Joe somehow found four of these books dedicated by Steinberg to Parsons and that, my friends, leaves one more for tomorrow.

Saul Steinberg personalized many books to many people. I would be only too pleased to show more of these on Attempted Bloggery.

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