The Dulwich Picture Gallery hosts a Saul Steinberg Retrospective

Written by Katie Donovan Tuesday, 23 August 2011 20:17

LONDON.- From The New Yorker to cartography, from greeting cards to gallery art, the comic genius of modernism unmasks the 20th century. Saul Steinberg (1914 - 1999), an American artist whose magic lit up the pages and covers of The New Yorker for six decades, is the subject of Dulwich Picture Gallery's latest winter exhibition. It's a retrospective which features more than a hundred drawings, collages and sculptural assemblages by the artist whom many regard as not only a comic genius but among the greatest draftsmen of the modern era. This exhibition is the first full scale review of his career. On exhibition through 15 February, 2009.

Born in Romania, Steinberg studied architecture in the 1930s in Milan, where he gained early fame as a cartoonist. In America after World War II, he became a propagandist, illustrator, fabric and card designer, muralist, fashion and advertising artist, stage designer and the tireless creator of image-jammed books. In the 1960s he decided to concentrate on art for gallery shows and for The New Yorker. The exhibition covers the whole range of his work, from high art to low, from murals to magazines, from caricature to cartography. To see the full scope of Steinberg's career is to get a close-up of the energy and contradictions of the 20th century. The exhibition will also will make the visitor smile a lot.

Steinberg's association with The New Yorker  continued for almost sixty years, resulting in nearly 90 covers and more than 1,200 drawings that elevate the language of popular graphics to the realm of fine art (many of these images are now available on www.cartoonbank.com). His career in the art world kept pace with his work for The New Yorker  and other magazines. Steinberg's first one-artist exhibition was held in 1943 at the Wakefield Gallery, New York. Three years later, he was among the "Fourteen Americans" in a landmark show at The Museum of Modern Art, his works exhibited alongside those of Arshile Gorky, Isamu Noguchi, and Robert Motherwell.

Dulwich Picture Gallery is England’s first public art gallery: it was founded in 1811 when Sir Francis Bourgeois RA bequeathed his collection of old masters “for the inspection of the public”.The Gallery is managed by a professional staff of about 25 and the Trustees are grateful for the additional support of  its many volunteers, teachers, guides, interns, pro bono consultants and the Friends of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Visit : www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/

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