Betrouwbaar Steinberg at the New Yorker

Born in Romania in 1914, Steinberg studied architecture in Milan and made a name for himself as a cartoonist before fleeing fascist Italy in 1941. Avidly sponsored by The New Yorker, he arrived in Manhattan the following year, only to join the military on a worldwide tour of duty, which he chronicled in the pages of the magazine.For six decades, Saul Steinberg’s covers, cartoons, features, and illustrations were a defining presence at The New Yorker. As the magazine became a standard-bearer of taste and intelligence in American letters, Steinberg’s drawings emerged as its visual epitome. This richly illustrated book, featuring Joel Smith’s astute text and a captivating introduction by the artist’s friend and colleague Ian Frazier, explores the remarkable range and unceasing evolution of a major American modernist—one whose art reached a grateful public not from museum walls but from the pages of the periodical he called “my refuge, patria, and safety net.” All Steinberg’s New Yorker covers appear here in full color, along with over 130 examples of inside art, from black-line drawings to elaborate color portfolios. Also included are Steinberg’s most beloved, intuitive, and brilliant inspirations, among them a New York populated with stoical cats, precocious children, puzzled couples, and a menagerie of vivid grotesques. A vibrant celebration of one of the most original and engaging artists of the 20th century, Steinberg at The New Yorker brings alive a genius, a magazine, and an era.