The Wit and Wisdom of Saul Steinberg
The Wit and Wisdom of Saul Steinberg
August 5, 2026 – April 18, 2027
Location: Gallery 16
For nearly six decades, Saul Steinberg’s humorous and thought-provoking drawings graced the covers and interior pages of The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Life, Time, and other popular publications. Although he is widely recognized for these celebrated images, Steinberg’s magazine drawings represent only one facet of an extraordinarily wide-ranging career.
A native of Romania, Steinberg received a doctorate in architecture from the Royal Polytechnic Institute of Milan in 1940. To escape the harsh and restrictive antisemitic laws under Mussolini, he left Italy and spent a year in Santo Domingo awaiting a visa that would finally allow him to enter the United States in 1942. In America, Steinberg worked as a painter, sculptor, muralist, designer, and prolific draughtsman. During World War II, he served as a propaganda artist making anti-fascist drawings for the OSS (the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency). In 1944, he married Hedda Sterne, a painter active in the New York School, and the couple mingled in the avant-garde art circles there. By the 1950s, the New York art scene was dominated by Abstract Expressionism, but Steinberg’s own artworks aligned more closely with the humor and absurdity of Dadaism.
With a deep knowledge of art history, literature, and popular culture, Steinberg created artworks that were readily accessible and yet often held deeper meaning. Poet Charles Simic called Steinberg a “comic philosopher.” Indeed, with biting wit, wry insights, and a strange cast of characters, Steinberg presented his observations on everything from American politics to urban living. As with the best examples of visual satire, Steinberg’s works are instantly relatable for they unerringly capture the complexity of human emotion and the irony of everyday experiences. Above all else, Steinberg offered the world his own penetrating insights into the human condition.
Exhibition Season Sponsors
Cary Brown and Steven E. Epstein
Susan Dabney Lavin and Allan Lavin
Todd P. Lowe and Fran C. Ratterman
Dr. Victoria Phillips and Travis Anderson
Fund for the Arts
Kentucky Arts Council