Saul Steinberg: A Biography

by Deirdre Bair

  After this, he veered back into repetitions: The “6000 Avenue” where he lived when he first arrived in New York became a recurring symbol that he used repeatedly in single drawings and longer, book-length works. An example is Canal Street, published in a limited edition in collaboration with IF, where many of the drawings either hint at or replicate earlier images of the street.

  “about the stupid boring results”: ST to HS, “Tuesday night,” probably between June 18 and June 20, 1949, AAA.

  Families falling from roofs: Information that follows is from interviews and conversations with HS, 2007.

  “tobacco poisoning”: ST to AB, September 26, 1949, SSF.

  “I’d rather lie awake at night”: ST to AB, December 7, 1949, SSF.

  “To Vogue 6 large”: ST, “Week At A Glance 1949,” December 7 and 20, 1949, YCAL, Box 3, Folder 3.

  There were even more: SSF has no record that ST ever fulfilled commissions for Stehli fabrics.

  “I thought afterwards”: ST, remarks, Alexander Calder memorial service, WMAA, December 6, 1976.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE ONLY HAPPILY MARRIED COUPLE

  “As artists, the Steinbergs pursue”: “Steinberg and Sterne: Romanian-Born Cartoonist and Artist-Wife Ambush the World with Pen and Paintbrush,” Life 31, August 27, 1951, pp. 50–54.

  At a party one night: ST to HS, n.d. but probably early spring 1949, AAA.

  It became, for better or worse, their trademark: Emily Genauer, “The Irascible Eighteen,” unsigned editorial, New York Herald Tribune, May 23, 1950.

  “politically savvy about publicity”: HS, interview, May 8, 2007; Joan Simon, “Patterns of Thought,” Art in America, February, 2007. HS painted portraits of Barnett Newman (oil on canvas, 1952, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College) and Annalee Newman (oil on canvas, 1952, collection of Priscilla Morgan).

  If he was miffed: HS, interview, May 8, 2007.

  Fleur Cowles was prominent: ST, “Week At A Glance 1950,” YCAL, Box 3.

  “in those days I signed”: HS, interview, May 8, 2007. Biala did not sign the letter of protest, but Louise Bourgeois, Mary Callery, and Day Schnabel did. In the interview, HS said that Biala and Bourgeois told her they dropped out of the ensuing publicity because they thought it best not to “offend the power” of the museum and they urged her to do the same. HS said it was her opinion that “they feared its power to influence their careers,” whereas this was “unimportant to her.” HS had no knowledge of why Callery and Schnabel were not in the photograph. James Breslin, in Mark Rothko: A Biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), p. 272, writes of some artists who refused to cooperate because Life “epitomized mass culture,” and others who “feared being made to look foolish.”

  “not a school”: HS, interview, May 8, 2007. Also, HS, interviewed by Steven Naifeh, n.d.; Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, Jackson Pollock: An American Saga (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1989), p. 603; Simon, “Patterns of Thought.”

  “In terms of my career”: HS, interview, May 8, 2007; Phyllis Tuchman, “Interview of Hedda Sterne,” December 17, 1981, AAA.

  Despite the fact that her method and technique: Selden Rodman, interviewing ST in 1960 for his book Conversations About Art (New York: Capricorn, 1961), p. 183, described HS as “one of the most gifted members of that school of painting [abstract expressionism].”

  Throughout the 1950s, when art historians: Eckhardt, Uninterrupted Flux, pp. 7, 9.

  “Painting for me is a process”: Ibid., p. 9 and p. 11, n. 22. Eckhardt calls attention to the editing of Robert Goodnough, “who cut the original transcript” of the “Artists’ Session at Studio 35 (1950),” later published in Bernard Karpell, Robert Motherwell, and Ad Reinhardt, eds., Modern Artists in America (New York: Wittenborn Schultz, 1951).

  “ability to make ideas concrete”: HS, interview, March 29, 2007.

  they “were filled with ideas”: HS, interview, April 18, 2007.

  Immediately after Life singled out: Life, March 20, 1950.

  Vogue followed by placing her: Vogue, February 1950; copy in YCAL, Box 6, Folder 2: “Hedda Sterne Clippings.” When ST and HS married, HS shaved five years off her age at ST’s insistence, because he did not want anyone to know she was his senior. In an interview on October 11, 2007, HS said it was a “great relief after his death when I could reclaim my true age.”

  Hedda set out to read Dickinson’s poetry: HS, interview, October 11, 2007.

  Another glowing review soon followed: “Art Exhibition Notes,” New York Times, February 16, 1950. Copy in YCAL, Box 6, Folder 2, “Hedda Sterne Clippings.”

  “Your work interests me much, much more”: HS to ST, n.d. but internal evidence suggests late 1943, YCAL, microfilm reels 144–45.

  “poor little ambitions”: HS to ST, “Sunday night,” internal evidence suggests 1958, YCAL, microfilm reels 144–45.

  However, the circumstances of the early years: For a listing of articles and reviews about HS, see Eckhardt, Uninterrupted Flux, Bibliography 1950 and 1951, p. 130.

  In 1951 she and Saul were featured: Life, August 27, 1951, pp. 50–54.

  Someone at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: The MGM contract is dated June 30, 1950, YCAL, Box 45, Folder “1950.” No documentation has yet been identified that could determine whose idea it was to use ST’s hand.

  They rented the Bel Air home: The lease was in the names of Annabella Powers and Hedda Sterne, for 139 W. Saltair, Brentwood, for July and August 1950; YCAL, Box 56, “Correspondence from 1950.” Unsigned article in the New York Herald Tribune, June 30, 1950, “Gene Kelly Gets Top-Flight Ghost for His ‘Drawings,’ ” notes that “Sol [sic] Steinberg, noted for his fine-line sketches for The New Yorker, has been signed by MGM to double for Kelly’s artistic endeavor in the musical,” YCAL, Box 62.

  He thought it was only his hand: Unsigned letter to ST, on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures letterhead, dated June 30, 1950, with a signature line for “Loew’s Incorporated” at the end; copy in YCAL, Box 45, Folder “1950.”

  “great promises of ‘a free hand’ ”: ST to AB, September 11, 1950, SSF.

  The climate was so seductive: ST to AB, August 10, 1950, SSF.

  He met such diverse personalities: Wilder became one of Steinberg’s most enthusiastic collectors—interestingly, one with such similar taste that the drawings Wilder most wanted to buy were usually the ones Steinberg liked best and wanted to keep for himself. In one example of several, Billy Wilder wanted to buy “baseball items” and hoped ST would change his mind and sell them.; Billy Wilder to ST, October 5, 1955, YCAL, Box 6, Folder “Correspondence 1954–55.” Wilder also thanked him for “the splendid diploma you bestowed upon me. It is my prized possession and hangs by its lonely self in my office. I shall cherish it beyond all academy awards”; Billy Wilder to ST, October 9, 1950, YCAL, Box 56, “Correspondence from 1950.”

  When Charles saw some of the drawings: Charles Eames to ST, January 8, 1951, YCAL, Box 56, “Correspondence from 1951.”

  He graced another with a naked woman’s torso: In exchange for ST’s drawings on the chairs, Eames “crated two units” of plain chairs and shipped them to ST in thanks for those which he painted. Charles Eames to ST, May 25, 1950, YCAL, Box 56, “Correspondence from 1950.”

  Naturally the local papers had a field day: The chair, designed in 1948, was composed of fiberglass, reinforced plastic, metal, and rubber. The torso chair is now in the collection of Lucia Eames. ST’s drawing is mistakenly dated 1952. He made it during his Hollywood stay in 1950.

  When he tried to describe what he had seen: ST to AB, October 23, 1950, SSF.

  After that, he was careful to retain: S:I, p. 256, and YCAL, Box 56.

  The filmmaker Carlo Ponti: Information about Ponti and Naples is from ST to AB, April 6, 1951, SSF.

  Steinberg thanked Blow: ST may have presented the diploma in 1951, but there is no firm evidence that it was. There are notations in ST’s 1955 and 1963 datebooks of dinners with Blow, so he may have given it then, but the
likelihood is that it was a 1951 gift. In 2009, Blow’s diploma was presented to SSF as a gift from Douglas and Carol Cohen. According to Sheila Schwartz, ST kept a supply of diplomas and certificates on hand to give as gifts whenever the urge struck him. Corroborating this is a letter to HS, n.d. but probably March 1953, AAA, where he writes that Betty Parsons “wants a diploma. I forgot to leave it with her and I don’t think I have any diplomas left in NY.”

  Funds had to be funneled: ST shipped via Liberty Packaging, according to frequent notations in YCAL, among them Box 7.

  Frequently the amount was greatly reduced: Lica Roman to ST, January 17, 1951, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 56, copy SSF, urging him to “file a complaint because I think they lost the package.”

  “We are extremely stressed out”: Ibid.

  It was already a subject of general conversation: Lica Roman to M & R Steinberg, February 19, 1950, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 56, copy SSF.

  “a donut maker”: Jacques Ghelber to ST, May 20, 1951, Romanian letters, YCAL, Box 56, copy SSF. For the next several years, letters similar to this one followed, among them ones from Sali Marcovici, Solomon Steinberg, and Sylvia Haimovici.

  It was a house “filled with art” Janine Di Giovanni, quoting Antony Penrose in “What’s a Girl to Do When a Battle Lands in Her Lap,” New York Times Magazine, October 21, 2007, p. 70.

  His first impression of London: ST to HS, July 17, 1951, AAA.

  A side trip to Brighton: ST to HS, n.d., but internal evidence suggests 1951 (although an unidentified hand has written “56” on the envelope), AAA.

  The next day he decamped: ST to HS, from Hotel Pembroke, Lansdowne Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, n.d., and TNY stationery from London, Saturday July 28, 1951, saying he is staying at the Euston Hotel.

  Dublin and Belfast had reminded him: ST to AB, July 3, 1951, SSF.

  After Brussels, he took the train: ST to AB, October 26, 1951, SSF. He added, “They’re nice and for me, having suffered so much with visas and documents …”

  he was not officially discharged: SecNav to ST, July 15, 1954, YCAL, Box 7, “Correspondence 1954–55.”

  “frightful in its ugliness”: ST to AB, January 17, 1952, SSF.

  Penrose and Miller sent the prickly Sonia: Roland Penrose and Lee Miller to ST, November 23, 1952, YCAL, Box 8, “Correspondence 1954.”

  Fred Stafford … stepped in: Stafford bought the house for HS and it was always in her name. A 1952 agreement shows that ST rented the second floor of the house at 179 East 71st Street to use as a studio from Mr. Frederick Stafford of 521 Park Avenue; YCAL, Box 56, “Correspondence from 1952.”

  The house was one in a row: The description of the house and how they used it comes from interviews and conversations there with HS throughout 2007.

  At the rear, French doors opened: When HS was in her nineties, after suffering a stroke and when she was afflicted with macular degeneration, she used these two rooms as combination bedroom and studio. She kept the second floor for guests and rented the third as a separate apartment.

  Throughout the next decade, Steinberg filled the room: Rodman, Conversations with Artists, p. 182.

  Saul took over the second floor: ST took the billiard table with him when he left the house in 1960. It eventually ended up in one of the storage sheds on the Nivola property in Amagansett.

  He thought he worked better: ST to AB, November 30, 1953, SSF.

  “Saul’s New Yorker people”: HS, interviews, March 28 and April 18, 2007. For a list of friends and guests, see also S:I, p 256, and YCAL, Box 3, ST’s appointment books for 1952 and 1953.

  “two Irish rabbis”: May Tabak Rosenberg to ST, n.d., HR/Getty, Box 12, Folder 7.

  “rare gift for inventing”: ST, quoted in HR’s New York Times obituary, July 13, 1978. Kurt Vonnegut to ST, October 17, 1985, wrote that he remembered ST telling him how much conversations with HR meant to him. In ST’s undated reply (internal evidence places it in 1989), he talks about how HR’s “friendship continues to make my life tolerable and who in the meantime has become younger than I for he died in ’78 age 72 and I am now 75.”

  Rosenberg was a towering presence: May Tabak Rosenberg, from HR’s memorial service.

  Steinberg, whose height was just below: HS interview, April 18, 2007. After HR’s death, ST hung his photo in what he called “the meditation room” of his 75th St. apartment. It is now in YCAL, Box 50.

  Steinberg saw him in New York: ST to AB, March 31, 1952, SSF; ST, appointment book, March 18, 1952, notes a reception for De Sica “at museum”; YCAL, Box 3, Folder “Appointment Books 1951–52.”

  “a marvelous guest”: This information is from interviews and conversations with HS throughout 2007 and 2008.

  One evening he sat glowering: Priscilla Morgan, interview, May 31, 2007.

  The energy that Steinberg put into: The Parsons-Janis show was the first of a two-year traveling exhibition in which new works were substituted as others were sold. Other venues included the Frank Perls Gallery, Beverly Hills, in December; the London ICA and the Museu de Arte in São Paolo, 1952; Galerie Maeght, Paris, Amsterdam and Dortmund; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, all 1953. All arrangements were made by Janis. Information is from the exhibition notebook, SSF.

  He returned her generosity: Calvin Tompkins, Off the Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg (New York: Macmillan, 2005), p. 53.

  “I liked her”: From a telephone conversation with an unnamed interviewer, November 7, 1985, YCAL, Box 58.

  “gossipy and could be a treasure”: ST to HS, n.d. but written during the six-day voyage, April 18–24, 1952, AAA.

  It made him so nervous: Information and all quotes that follow are from ST to HS, May 1, 1952, AAA.

  “jittery” days: ST to HS, “Tuesday” and May 4, 1952, AAA.

  His consolation was: ST to HS, “Wednesday evening,” internal evidence suggests May 21, 1952, on stationery of Hyde Park Hotel, London, AAA.

  He found his parents: ST to HS, “Monday,” and “Thursday 8,” AAA. Information and quotes are from these letters until noted otherwise.

  Unfortunately, neither director’s ideas: ST to AB, September 26, 1952, SSF.

  Otherwise, the Italian trip was disappointing: ST to HS, n.d., on stationery of Hotel Plaza and de France, Nice.

  Rogers had several projects in mind: ST to HS, “May 52,” on stationery of Hotel France et Choiseul, AAA.

  The thirty-eight year old ST, who had never wanted: ST to HS, “Sunday evening,” on stationery of Hotel France et Choiseul, internal evidence suggests May 18, 1952. AAA.

  “personal letter, silly”: ST to HS, “Thursday,” internal evidence suggests May 21, 1952, on stationery of Hotel France et Choiseul, AAA.

  He tried to explain to Hedda: Smith, S:I, p. 48, notes how ST “certainly heard from readers” and how, in a 1952 memo to himself, he divides readers into “the far and the near-sighted.” See also 1952 “Diary” and “1952 yearbook, March 11,” YCAL, Box 3.

  “any fly by night plane”: ST to HS, “Monday,” internal evidence suggests May 19, 1952, on stationery of Hyde Park Hotel, AAA.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE DRAFTSMAN-LAUREATE OF MODERNISM

  “Your principal fear, I think”: HS to ST, n.d. but internal evidence suggests 1954, YCAL, microfilm reels 144–45.

  It was more than “a point of honor”: ST to HS, “Wednesday evening,” internal evidence suggests late May 1952, on Hyde Park Hotel stationery, AAA. In his “Week in Review, 1952,” YCAL, Box 3, ST notes “June 9: Boston.” ST never specified what the Boston commission was, but there are several references that suggest it was for a department store mural that was never realized. In ST to AB, January 17, 1952, he refers to “a huge mural” he is doing. Astragal [“Notes and Topics” columnist], “Drawing the Crowds,” Architects’ Journal [London], May 8, 1952, p. 565: “At the end of this month he is hurrying back to America to do a mural in a Boston department store.” “P Is for Prosciutto,” Time, February 11, 1952, p. 70: “Current Steinberg projec
ts incude a 400-foot mural for a Boston store.” The article’s title refers to an ABC booklet ST made for Claire Nivola when she was four years old. It is another example of ST’s inventions, as in her book the letter C is for Cagliari, one of the three principal cities in Sardinia (her father’s birthplace), and the P is for Picasso, who is depicted standing with one foot on and holding a sword that passes through the Louvre, which is small and on its side and which has blood pouring from a wound. E‑mail from Claire Nivola, October 23, 2009.

  He stayed in New York just long enough: Jerome Beatty, October 6, 1955, wrote on behalf of Collier’s Magazine to ask if it could buy the drawings because TNY never published them. He also wanted to discuss ST’s working directly for Collier’s, but nothing came of it.

  Hedda went with him: Three letters in YCAL, Box 56: to the reservations manager, Hotel Sherman, July 1, 1952, allowing ST and HS to occupy the room several days before the Republican convention began; from Harding T. Mason, associate editor, TNY, asking readers for assistance to ST in covering the convention; from Harding T. Mason, July 17, 1952, asking the same for coverage of the Democratic convention.

  “I must have seen 200 films”: ST to AB, November 30, 1952, SSF.

  Between the United States government: Daniel Bueno, “Saul Steinberg e o Brasil: sua passagem pelo pais, publicacoes e influencia sobre artistas brasileiros” (Saul Steinberg and Brazil: his time in the country, publications and influence on Brazilian artists), Revista de Historia da Arte e Arqueologia no. 10 (July–December 2008): 126. Bueno, on pp. 129–30, writes that Bardi’s original idea was not realized although ST filled several sketchbooks with Brazilian scenes, YCAL sketchbooks 3179 and 3201. Only two drawings were published: a hotel in Belém appeared in Saul Steinberg (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art), text by Harold Rosenberg; and a drawing of Recife appeared in The Passport, 1954. I wish to thank Eoin and Maeve Slavin for providing me with a copy of the 2011 exhibition catalogue, Saul Steinberg: As aventuras da linha, Roberta Saraiva, ed. (São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Salles), 2011.