Saul Steinberg
Florida
1969

Name: Florida
Brand: Saul Steinberg
Price: 60218.23 AUD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 5 (7 reviews)

$38,500

£29,220.92

€33,679.52

CA$53,954.82

A$60,218.23

CHF 31,681.66

MX$731,485.24

NOK 401,639.15

SEK 375,883.92

DKK 251,362.09

About the Item

Florida is an oil and ink mixed media artwork mounted on panel, 24 x 20 inches, signed and dated 'STEINBERG/1969' lower right. Inscribed '22 Florida' verso in pencil. Framed in a contemporary gold leaf, closed-corner frame. EXHIBITED Los Angeles, Felix Landau Gallery, Paintings and Drawings: Saul Steinberg, December 1970 - January 1971, no. 23, illustrated Born in Romania on June 15, 1914 and an immigrant to New York City in 1941 after fleeing the Anti-Semitic politics of WWII, Saul Steinberg’s work was forever shaped by the social and political world around him. He is famed for his drawings, paintings, and collages that questioned the absurdities of city life, the division of high and low culture, as well as his characteristic use of line. Although he began his studies in architecture at the Università Politecnico di Milano, Steinberg’s artistic career is predominately recognized for his contribution to The New Yorker Magazine. Over the course of six decades, Steinberg created 1,200 drawings and 87 covers for the prominent magazine. Florida is one example of his “Postcard” series that developed in the late 1960s and carried on in the covers of The New Yorker though the 1970s. These “Postcards” were as much a comment on the illusion of nature as they were about politics. Firstly, in an interview for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Steinberg divulged, “These postcards represent not the reality, not the truth—they represent our convention and our idea of what nature looks like…nature looks to us like imitating art… or it imitates the slapstick of the sunset, all the histrionics of nature and light and sun.” (“Take 30 in New York,” interview with Adrienne Clarkson, Canadian Broadcasting Company, January 1968.) In other words, the picturesque image of Florida is a cliché that harkens back to René Magritte’s infamous 1929 painting The Treachery of Images. It is not a pure landscape, but rather one that has been molded by the hand of the artist and emphasized with the addition of imitation rubber-stamps and faux calligraphy. As Steinberg noted, “If I use a rubber stamp…I do it to show that this paint is not real paint, it’s a symbol of the thing painted.” (Steinberg, Reflections and Shadows, p. 71). The rubber-stamps dotting the lower border of Florida can also be seen as a political commentary regarding the Vietnam War. After living through WWII beforehand, Steinberg’s works never fully evaded the political sphere. As an artist he used his imagery to cast doubt on what is reality and what is truth. In an interview for a solo exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art, Steinberg said, “The cliché, the rubber stamp, has a political meaning,” (Jean Robertson, brochure for the exhibition “Saul Steinberg,” Columbus Museum of Art Ohio, 1986). Around 1966, Steinberg began utilizing stamps of his own design to censure postwar society. According to Eli Waldron, the stamps “parody the political and social world.” (Eli Waldron, Publishers Weekly, July 5, 1973). At the time of Florida’s completion in 1969, Steinberg’s rubber-stamp drawings where being showcased across the world, including the Parsons and Janis Galleries in New York and the Galerie Maeght in Paris. A groundbreaking artist of the Post-War era, Steinberg sought to dismantle standards within society and his work crossed the line between the high art of galleries and the readily available imagery of magazines. As a result, Steinberg commented, “I don’t quite belong to the art, cartoon or magazine world, so the art world doesn’t quite know where to place me,” he said (Jean Vanden Heuvel, “Straight from the Hand and Mouth of Steinberg,” LIFE, December 10, 1965, p. 66).

Creator:
Saul Steinberg (1914-1999, American)
Creation Year:
1969
Dimensions:
Height: 31.5 in (80.01 cm)Width: 27.5 in (69.85 cm)
Medium:
Ink,Oil
Movement & Style:
Post-War
Period:
20th Century
Condition:
generally excellent condition with some minor soil and abrasion along edges and corners, some inherent to the artist's process; minute protrusion spot in the upper right sky.
Gallery Location:
Greenwich, CT
Reference Number:
Seller: FASTN1969011stDibs: LU2664213755222

Paper, Lithograph

1960s Modern Landscape Prints

Materials

Lithograph

Saul Steinberg, Composition, L'édition de tête (after), 1966

$1,036 Sale Price

20% Off

Free Shipping

Saul Steinberg (1914-1999, American) Postcard Style Watercolor Landscape, Signed

By Saul Steinberg

Located in San Francisco, CA

Saul Steinberg (1914-1999, American) Postcard Style Watercolor Landscape Painting Cover of The New Yorker, September, 1971 Signed and Dated 1970 Inscribed "For Barbara" Unfra...

Category