Steinberg (1914–1999) is best known for his New Yorker
drawings, but he also created murals, advertising art, collages, fabric designs, masks, greeting cards and stage sets, all of which are represented in this copiously illustrated volume published in conjunction with a traveling retrospective. Born in Romania, Steinberg emigrated in 1942 to the United States, where he quickly rose to fame with drawings that employ the visual language of the cartoon but add an inventiveness that Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Simic lauds in his introduction. In the lucid text, art curator Smith (Steinberg at the New Yorker
) calls these calligraphic drawings "illuminations," since, like illuminated manuscripts, they combine word and image, and also because they throw light on subjects "too small to be noticed." Immediately understandable yet infinitely complex, the drawings combine art and joke, and have unexpected depth that Smith explores in his commentaries. Steinberg created these visionary drawings—in such a wide variety of styles that art critics have always found them impossible to categorize—by turning up surprises in unlikely places. Smith compares him to the little dog he added to scenes in old picture postcards—absorbed in his own world, sniffing out details others miss. This splendid catalogue is a worthy tribute to Steinberg's genius. (Nov.)
