Latest Addition To The Spill Library…Steinberg’s “Illuminations”
I could’ve titled this post “The Big Freeze.” It’s about falling out of love with Steinberg’s work, and then, ever-so-slightly falling back.
The book shown above, according to text on the copyright page, “was published [in 2006] on the occasion of the exhibition Saul Steinberg: Illuminations”…and therein lies the personal reason for the delay incorporating the book into the Spill library.
I went to see the exhibit, first at the Morgan in New York City (where it ran from December of 2006 – March of 2007), and later when it had moved to Vassar’s Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The initial visit resulted in a major shift in my feelings for Steinberg’s work. Steinberg had always been, for me, on The New Yorker’s artistic mountaintop. He didn’t share the very peak with James Thurber; he was perhaps the second in line to the peak. In The New Yorker, to my eyes, Steinberg could do no wrong. His influence on my work, though it may be impossible to see, was huge. The word “inspirational” comes to mind.
And then… I walked through the Morgan’s Steinberg exhibit. I hadn’t gone into the Morgan looking for trouble; I went in looking for ever-more inspiration. I walked out feeling confused. Steinberg’s work, with the exception of one piece that I adore,* suddenly meant nothing to me. I got nothing from the work in the exhibit — it drew (no pun intended) an emotional blank. His images seemed like eye-candy. I know, I know — to say this about STEINBERG may seem some unpleasant strain of cartoonist heresy. Not fully accepting my reaction to the Morgan exhibit, I made a return visit to the exhibit once it moved north to Vassar. I suppose wanted to make sure that the Morgan experience wasn’t a fluke. But no, it wasn’t.
This unpleasant reassessment has hung with me all these years since, until last year, when I picked up another of his other collections, The Discovery Of America (published in 1992). Looking through, some of the glow began to return. With that, I figured it was time to get the book that accompanied the exhibit where Steinberg ceased to be a cartoon god for me. Illuminations hasn’t completely turned me around again and made things “right” but it has helped in another way: it has slowly brought me back to wanting to see more of Steinberg’s art. Looking through Illuminations is in a way like looking through my high school yearbook, coming across some moments that continue to perplex and some that remind me of what great times I occasionally had. No one asked, but if they did, would I still say that Steinberg is one of the magazine’s greats? Yes, of course he is. His work is beautiful. His contribution to the magazine, especially his covers, is monumental.
*I believe this Steinberg piece to be one of the all-time greatest New Yorker covers:
Steinberg’s A-Z entry:
Saul Steinberg Born, June 15, 1914, Ramnic-Sarat, Rumania. Died in 1999. New Yorker work: 1941 – (The New Yorker publishes his work posthumously). Steinberg is one of the giants of The New Yorker. Go here to visit the saulsteinbergfoundation where you’ll find much essential information and examples of his work.