Attempted Bloggery: New Yorker cover

Showing posts with label New Yorker cover. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Grok 3 Analyzes @doc_nad

"I wasn't lookin' but somehow you found me"
"Nobody Does It Better" (1977)
Carole Bayer Sager

I maintained my Twitter account even when the site was rebranded as X and I continue to post there regularly. Today I have some 99,100 posts on the site, most of which relate to this blog. They do get read and even generate a few responses as I gingerly approach that big milestone of 100,000.

Not all my readers are people. I was surprised to discover that Grok 3, xAI's chatbot launched almost six months ago, has been keeping tabs on me. I usually try to avoid AI results in my searches, but it is becoming more difficult. Anyway, if I'm the subject, I figure it's worth a look. Here's what I found on my iPhone, inadvertently, on July 27:

I never considered myself a "nostalgic blogger," but I can certainly see the argument. I don't approve of "their" as a singular pronoun, let alone one of my pronouns, but I suppose I don't get a say here. I definitely don't like the construction "celebrating New Yorker cartoonists and covers"—that's just bad writing. Why not write "New Yorker cartoonists and cover artist?" Calling Ronald Searle and Edward Koren icons is not something I would do casually, although not because I disagree. Readers can decide for themselves who is and isn't an icon. Finally, my interest in wrestling is news to me.

I repeated the search the next day with similar, but far from identical, results:

There is a newer iteration of the technology called Grok 4 included with a premium subscription. I have no plans to upgrade.

05030

Friday, January 24, 2025

This Week's New Yorker Cover, Rejected

A display of rejected New Yorker cover concept art is currently on view at L'Alliance New York, a part of the exhibition "Covering The New Yorker."

The assemblage of prints of rejected sketches is pinned to a bulletin board, like the card describing them:

Oddly, one of the rejected sketches shown there is this very week's cover by Till Lauer. It depicts the glow of wildfires in California. A notation is dated 1/15/25 and bears an okay as well as the name of the magazine's editor David [Remnick], likely in the hand of the art editor Françoise Mouly:

It was not published on the cover of the January 20 issue, hence its status in this show as a rejected cover. It does appear on the January 27 issue, a one week layover—surely not the worst rejection ever:

Flames and Shadows
Till Lauer
The New Yorker, January 27, 2025

The Lauer cover initially was rejected in favor of Barry Blitt's inauguration cover Two's a Crowd. Both were timely enough to have appeared that same week. Although January 20 is the date of the presidential swearing in, the issue is released one full week ahead of the publication date and The New Yorker's editors wanted the Blitt cover out a full week ahead of the event—the cover itself was even released a few days early. There are, of course, some risks inherent in anticipating real-world events. The illustration quite naturally foresaw an outdoor ceremony, which turned out not to be the case because of extreme cold. It also shows Donald Trump's hand resting on the bible. Who knew?

Two's a Crowd
Barry Blitt
The New Yorker, January 20, 2025

Curiously, Blitt's cover recalls his own twin-scenarios cover of eight years earlier. Both images show Trump at his swearing in accompanied—or superseded—by extremely powerful and wealthy men with their own agendas.

Significant Others
Barry Blitt
The New Yorker, October 31, 2016

04859

Thursday, November 14, 2024

Blog Post 4800: Saul Steinberg, Artist

Was Saul Steinberg an artist?
—Deidre Bair

Funny you should ask. That baffling question posed by Saul Steinberg's own biographer Deirdre Bair has been addressed several times by art critics and others. Yet at least a few of us who champion Steinberg's work from the sidelines are still infuriated by the very idea. Can the question over Steinberg's status as an artist, as opposed to a cartoonist, ever be put to rest?

A new Spanish exhibition has the very deliberate and telling title "Saul Steinberg, artista." Write me if you need a translation. That should be taken as an answer to Bair's query, one that will, it is to be hoped, endure. This show is the first in Spain ever dedicated to the work of Steinberg and it is his largest solo exhibition ever. It is currently on view at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid.

I'm pleased to report that gallery photos have been provided to this blog courtesy of a recent visitor; let's call him our man in Madrid. In addition, I have interspersed seven promotional photos from the Fundación Juan March's website with all the proper title, ownership, and copyright information. Going even beyond that, I have added two New Yorker magazine covers which correspond to the original art on display because—let's face it—we all know I can't help myself.

So here, for starters, is the exhibition entrance with an enlarged photograph of Steinberg down on the floor surrounded by his drawings. Is he checking them over? Choosing among them? Or is he just posing for the camera?

False documents:

Looking up:

Interior:

The Museum, c. 1949:

Compare with the March's scan:

The Museum, c. 1949
Saul Steinberg
Carol and Douglas Cohen Collection
© The Saul Steinberg Foundation / VEGAP, Madrid, 2024

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

Two maps: a study or rough alongside the famous New Yorker cover art.

View of the World From 9th Avenue, 1976

Saul Steinberg
Private collection

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

And, while we're on the subject of New Yorker covers:

New York Taxis, 1977

Saul Steinberg

Carol and Douglas Cohen Collection

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

Kamerun, Central Africa, 1987:

Cat and bird:

Sleeping cat, Eames Fiberglass armchair:

Family portraits:

Rainbow, 1974:

Mural:

The exhibition space:

Still Life, 1980:

Drawing table, 1966:

Straphangers, 1964:

City Scape, 1956

Saul Steinberg

Michael Cohen Collection

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

Steinberg's masks, including some photographs by Inge Morath:

Untitled, 1961-1962

Saul Steinberg

Museum der Moderne Salzburg

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

Masks and landscapes:

A landscape, drawing and writing the Steinberg name, a photo, and a Galerie Maeght poster:

The landscape on the right may be seen in the photograph of Steinberg on the floor displayed at the entrance to the exhibition:

Piano lessons, a drawing on music paper:

1978:

Happy birthday to friend Aldo Buzzi, construction, 1974:

Still Life Chair, 1981

Saul Steinberg

Galerie Claude Bernard

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

Steinberg's books:

Steinberg's many New Yorker covers:

They're worth a closer look:

And:

The catalogue:

https://tienda.march.es/catalogos-de-exposiciones/16678-saul-steinberg-artista.html

Nueva exposición:

"Saul Steinberg, artista"

La March

Untitled, 1963

Saul Steinberg

Private collection

https://www.march.es/en/madrid/exhibitions/saul-steinberg-artist

My thanks to our man in Madrid for all the swell photos and for staying out of Havana. All the artwork shown above, as you well know, is © The Saul Steinberg Foundation. "Saul Steinberg, artista" will be on view at the Fundación Juan March through January 12, 2025. See it and let me know your answer to my own impertinent question: Was Saul Steinberg a cartoonist?