In the traditional terms of Art History, illustration has been considered a creative field of little relevance. However, in recent decades, the postmodern erosion of the boundaries between high art and popular practices has allowed disciplines such as graphics, textiles or ceramics to be revalued. In this context of transformation, the rediscovery of the work of Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) stands out, who, in the words of art critic Harold Rosenberg, managed to elevate illustration to the category of drawing. Related news standard Yes REVIEW OF: ‘ Max Ernst Surrealism, art and cinema’ at the Círculo de Bellas Artes: the author deserved much more Francisco Carpio standard Si REVIEW OF: ‘Dream bird machine’, at the MACBA: Second Time’s the Charm by Teresa Solar Abboud Isabel Lázaro Steinberg is especially known for his work on the covers and inside pages of ‘The New Yorker’ magazine, a close collaboration that lasted nearly six decades. A contemporary, both by generation and geographical location, of the group of Abstract Expressionist artists, Steinberg shared a migrant origin with Gorky, De Kooning, Newman and Rothko. In 1946, he participated with some of them in the ‘Fourteen Americans’ exhibition at the MoMA. Its inclusion aroused the distrust of the most influential critic of the time, Clement Greenberg, who came to define Steinberg’s work as “insignificant from the point of view of modern art.” Rejecting everything that Greenberg’s theoretical-critical formulation entails, which would become a true dogma when evaluating the quality of the postwar North American avant-garde, it rejected almost everything that Steinberg represented: his link with mass culture, figurative expression, the narrative dimension, spatial games and, above all, the search for new forms – hybrid and expanded – of graphic expression. With his integration of diverse disciplines and techniques, Steinberg transgressed one of Greenberg’s main demands: the purity of the medium (“each art has to be defined in terms of the limitation of its own means”). Steinberg, who published his first ‘photoworks’ – black and white photographs intervened with drawings – in the ’50s magazine ‘Flair’, avoided any typecasting, giving his work a mutant nature. “I don’t completely belong to the world of art, nor to the world of cartoons, nor to the world of magazines, that’s why the art world doesn’t really know where to place me,” he once stated. Multifaceted look. In the images, some of the proposals in Madrid by the creator of Romanian origin, such as his ‘View of the world from Ninth Avenue’ or his ‘Saul Steinberg still life chair. In Spain, the first important review of Steinberg’s legacy took place in 2002, when The IVAM organized an exhibition about his role as a cartoonist. In recent years, the Saul Steinberg Foundation in New York, the main institution dedicated to the study of his work, has deployed an ambitious strategy to promote its dissemination and recognition at an international level. Among its initiatives, the donation of funds to leading cultural institutions, such as the Juan March Foundation, stands out. Its headquarters in Madrid currently houses the largest exhibition dedicated to Steinberg ever held, with more than 100 additional works compared to its closest competitor: the retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum in New York in 1978. This exhibition, which brings together nearly 400 pieces Coming from various private collections and institutions in Europe and the US, it places Steinberg’s exceptional graphic production at the center of the narrative. In it, we discover a unique system of forms and signs, an exceptional mastery of perceptual paradoxes, as well as an exquisite ability to articulate a criticism as subtle as it is irreverent. At the same time, Steinberg elevates the humorous to a sophisticated game between signifiers, aporias and paradoxes of meaning. The curators’ speech highlights the philosophical dimension of their images, articulated through themes such as Nature versus artifice, the interaction between the observer and what is observed, contemporary architecture and its ways of inhabiting it, or issues linked to the exploration of his own identity.But the quote also proposes a thorough exploration of his lesser-known proposals, some even unexpected. For example, his fascination with postcards, both as a communication tool and as an aesthetic resource; its exquisite wooden objects carved and painted in trompe l’oeil; or his forays into painting, photography, artist books, magazines and films. Saul Steinberg Saul Steinberg, artist’. Juan March Foundation. Madrid. C/ Castelló, 77. Commissioners: Alicia Chillida, Francesca Pellicciari, Manuel Fontán del Junco, Aida Capa and María Zorrilla. Until January 12. Four stars. Highlights include the recovery of his mural collage ‘Art Viewers’, a work that until now had only been able to be seen by those who visited the Galerie Maeght during the artist’s brief exhibition, open to the public in April 1966. In short, a dazzling exhibition that surpasses the topical characterization of Steinberg as an illustrator and constructs an impeccable rewriting of a new classic – protean, hybrid and innovative – of 20th century art.
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