Saul Steinberg: Gallery Flyer from 1952

Contributor Scott Burns has turned up a variant on the Saul Steinberg lettersheet we saw here last week issued for the 1952 art exhibition "Drawings" upon which gallerists Sidney Janis and Betty Parsons collaborated. This flyer, unlike the lettersheet, does not have two blank sides on the inside. Rather, the four drawings from the outside of the lettersheet are folded into the inside of the flyer, and the outside of the flyer is a wraparound drawing of Venice's Piazza San Marco with the printed announcement of the show.

A Wikipedia photo dated 2021 is shown for reference. Steinberg's vantage point was evidently higher up in the colonnade.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_San_Marco#/media/File:P
iazza_San_Marco_(Venice)_at_night-msu-2021-6449-.jpg

Note:  I am grateful to Scott Burns who seems to know what I want to see even before I do. This is his nineteenth contribution to Attempted Bloggery.

If you too have something I want to see by Saul Steinberg, feel free to send a few images without my having to ask.

04805

Saul Steinberg: The 1966 Sidney Janus Gallery Catalogue

Tireless contributor David from Manhattan reports on a 1966 catalogue from the Sidney Janis Gallery of New York that includes the Saul Steinberg work Art Lovers sold just last week at Swann Galleries. He writes:

1966 was a very good year for Saul Steinberg, beginning with a hugely successful show at Galerie Maeght in Paris. But then, all through the summer and early fall, he prepared for an exhibition with Sidney Janis. According to his biographer, Deirdre Bair, Steinberg compared his labor to "an exam in a French Lycée." But it paid off. The 11 x 8 1/2" catalogue lists 76 works, with only 20 illustrated, all in black-and-white, and not particularly well-reproduced, though Art Lovers in the number 10 spot was given a two-page spread at the midpoint as compensation. But buyers were not deterred by the listless reproductions. A number of his pictures involved viewing or creating works of art, and this turned out to be rather prescient. Even allowing for exaggeration and rounding off of numbers, Steinberg happily wrote to Aimé Maeght: "I sold 80 pictures at respectable prices—even more and at higher prices than Paris. Naturally this gives me great pleasure."

Naturally. Steinberg hadn't had a show in Manhattan in thirteen years, and perhaps art buyers were getting impatient. 1966 was also the year the artist received sage advice on the art of copyright from his Hungarian lawyer, Alexander Lindey, who not so coincidentally was an author of a textbook on copyright law. Inside the front cover is a great deal of white space, with only "© 1966 By Saul Steinberg" in tiny print at top. Steinberg had listened, even if he didn't borrow Lindey's book. The list of works in this show, with some titles familiar, and others intriguing, makes one hungry for another Steinberg exhibition.

Front cover

11. Dealers

 

Back cover
Ariadne (large detail)

Ariadne (1966) today resides in the North Carolina Museum of Art. Here's the full image:

Ariadne (1966)
Saul Steinberg
North Carolina Museum of Art

https://ncartmuseum.org/object/ariadne/

Note:  Today's words and images are provided by David from Manhattan, to whom once again I offer my sincere thanks. This is his sixty-fourth contribution to the blog.

04803

Saul Steinberg: Gallery Lettersheet from 1952

Today David from Manhattan writes of a rare eBay acquisition related to Saul Steinberg, who has been our subject these past three days:

Saul Steinberg was close to Betty Parsons, the artist and brilliant gallery owner who was an early champion of mid-century art. But even though, like others, he went over to the more commercial Sidney Janis Gallery in 1951, he made sure he didn't abandon Betty. When Steinberg's first Janis show opened in January 1952, the show included the Parsons Gallery, just across the hall from the Janis Gallery at East 57th St. This lettersheet, possibly a suggestion of Parsons with final approval of the drawings by Steinberg, is four pages, 9 1/2 x 6 7/8", illustrated front & back, and when opened, pages 2 & 3 are waiting to be written on. The text on front makes it clear the exhibition was a joint effort of the two gallerists. This was on eBay years ago as a Buy It Now listing. Memory suggests the price was around $50. But no complaints here, even if there wasn't a letter inside signed "ST" or maybe "Saul." After this show, the artist would have a self-imposed exile from exhibitions in New York until 1966.

Note:  I'm still thanking David from Manhatton for his ongoing contributions to the blog, and I'm still counting them. The number is now 63.

04802

Saul Steinberg: Art Lovers

On Tuesday, a drawing by Saul Steinberg from 1966, Art Lovers, was offered at auction by Swann Galleries.

Art Lovers, 1966
Saul Steinberg

Saul Steinberg
Swann Galleries Modern & Post-War Art, Sale 2685, Lot 44, accessed 3 hours before the sale on November 12

https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/SAUL-STEINBERG-(1914---1999-AMERICAN)-Art-Lovers-(-10)?saleno=2685&lotNo=44&refNo=823434

The drawing sold for a hammer price of $7,500.

The work was sold in a Kulicke frame. Longtime friend David from Manhattan provides an exclusive peek at what's under the frame:

Stamped "©1966 by Saul Steinberg

The sale of this drawing

covers only the physical drawing itself.

The artist reserves all other rights

in it, including copyright."

Kulicke Frames, Inc., label

Sidney Janis Gallery label
"Ink and Color Crayon"
I am assured that there is indeed ink but no color crayon present.

Note: My thanks to fellow art lover David from Manhattan for providing the additional images. This is the sixty-second post to which he's contributed something unique.

04801

Keith Haring: Men and Robots

Oh, come on. Who doesn't like robots? Still, there may be something apocalyptic about Keith Haring's untitled drawing of men and robots. Both entities, so to speak, are warming themselves by a primitive fire while what conceivably might be radioactive fallout rains down on them.

Keith Haring
Palm Beach Modern Auctions, December 3, 2022

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/keith-haring-men-robots-ink-drawing-estate-coa-682-c-e33417fba7?objectID=175500866&algIndex=undefined&queryID=aaeb4f24ab3acc40c51ed3c3023f1f3b#

04216