SAUL STEINBERG
Works From the 50's - 80's

March 25 - May 8, 2010

........Adam Baumgold Gallery presents an exhibition of 40 works by Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) from the early 1950's to the late 1980's. The exhibition will include drawings, works on paper and mixed media constructions by one of the 20th century's most enigmatic and inventive artists.

........Featured in the exhibition will be several emblematic works from Steinberg's retrospectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1978, and from the Steinberg "Illuminations," retrospective at the Morgan Library & Museum in 2006. "Dancing Couple,"1965, a drawing from Steinberg's Whitney Retrospective, shows a precisely rendered man dancing with a stick-figured woman. The drawing "Bleecker Street," 1971, was a famous New Yorker cover that was in both the Whitney and Morgan retrospectives - it depicts the promenade as a locus of culture of all types - an encyclopedic view of diverse, comic, city folk and creatures amidst the urban jungle. The exhibition will include a version of Steinberg's most recognized and celebrated drawing "View of the World from 9th Avenue."

........The exhibition will highlight "Rodozachari Table," 1981, a large mixed media table assemblage that incorporates the tools of Steinberg's art: whittled wooden pencils, paint brushes, and drawing pads, as well as his speech balloons, rubber stamps, assorted themes, symbols, and obsessions, "his "erotica," as he likes to call them." Harold Rosenberg said "They are extensions of himself... Once again, Steinberg presents a fabrication that stands for him but also hides him. The tables continue his autobiography in personal terms that betray no secrets."

........This exhibition will include several early drawings from the 1950's and 1960's that were reproduced in the Steinberg books The New World, All in Line, The Passport, The Labyrinth, The Inspector, Le Masque. Also, exhibited will be drawings that were used for cover illustrations for Steinberg's book The Catalogue, (1962), and his exhibition catalog Still Life and Architecture, (1982), as well as drawings such as "Here Now," (1981) and "I Do, I Have, I Am," (1971), that were New Yorker covers and variants. Many iconic Steinberg drawings from the 50's and 60's will be exhibited that haven't been seen publicly in several decades such as "Physiognomy," 1968, and "Interested," c. 1950.

........The gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00-5:30 P.M. For additional information, please contact Adam Baumgold at abaumgold@aol.com or (212)861-7338.

1.Harold Rosenberg, "Saul Steinberg," Alfred A. Knopf

Rodozachari Table, 1981(detail)

I Do, I Have, I Am, 1971
Ink, watercolor on paper
14 1/4" x 11 1/4"
Variant The New Yorker cover

Here Now, 1981
Ink, watercolor and crayon on paper
14" x 11"
The New Yorker cover, May 24, 1999

Physiognomy, 1968 (detail)

Chicago- Grant Park, 1952 (detail)

Chicago- Grant Park, 1952 (detail)

Untiled (Question Marks), 1961
Ink on paper
14 1/2" x 22 3/4"

Reproduced: The New Yorker
Saul Steinberg, "The New World"

Interested, c. 1950 (detail)

Untitled, 1967 (detail)

Untitled (Car), 1952
From A.J. Liebling's "Second City"
Ink on paper
13" x 23"

Sun Pistachio Column, 1981
Mixed media wood construction
30" X 9 1/8" x 17 1/4"

Sun Pistachio Column, 1981 (detail)

Federal Projects, 1981
Ink, watercolor, artist's stamps on paper
29" x 22"

Untitled (May Rescues the Cat), 1961
Pen and ink and pastel on paper
18 3/4" x 25 1/2"

Untitled (May Rescues the Cat), 1961 (detail)

Untitled (May Rescues the Cat), 1961 (detail)

Demonstration in the Square, 1959
Ink on paper
14 1/4" x 23"

"Utopia III," 1967
Pen, ink and stamps on paper
19¾" x 25½"

Untitled (certificate)
Mixed media
12" x 8 3/4"

Untitled (Snakecharmer), c. 1948-50
Ink on paper
8 3/4" x 7"

Untitled (Arch), c. 1950
Ink on paper
14 3/4" x 11 3/4"

Untitled (Arch), c. 1950
Ink on paper
14 3/4" x 11 3/4"