Saul Steinberg: A Biography Part 28

He wanted to put off: ST to AB, December 27, 1948.

"slaving away at it": Ibid. From 1949 until the mid-1950s he produced designs for Patterson, and later Stehli and Greef, on a fee-plus-royalty basis, which earned him significant sums of money. Some of the designs were t.i.tled "Views of Paris," "Paris Opera," "Gendarmes," "Trains," and "Cowboys." Examples are in S:I, pp. 4445.

He began the new year: ST to AB, February 4, 1949, SSF.

the first large-scale work: See S:I, 1949 Chronology, p. 255 and p. 239, n. 86. In the end, ST made twenty-four drawings, which are now in the collection of the Detroit Inst.i.tute of Art (DIA); the mural was destroyed when the DIA show closed.

"the best design (in their opinion)": ST to AB, June 1, 1949, SSF.

Girard was sorry to relay: Alexander Girard to ST, November 5, 1951, YCAL, Box 56, "Correspondence from 1950."

"bunch of cartoons": ST to AB, December 27, 1948.

work was "therapeutic": ST to AB, December 27, 1948, SSF.

For a short time he liked: ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests early spring 1949, AAA.

"an old and honored t.i.tle": ST to AB, June 1, 1949, SSF.

the reception ... was tepid: Wendy Weil, ST's literary agent, provided information about the sales of his books in interviews and conversations, March 22 and 24, 2010.

He complained of having to work: ST to HS, May 20, 1949, AAA.

Miss Elinor didn't last long: To the end of his life, ST kept voluminous folders filled with letters from individuals or firms who wanted to commission a project imploring him to respond to the initial request. He may have done so on the telephone, but there is no written record that he ever did. These folders are scattered throughout the YCAL boxes.

Steinberg thought Rogers was one of the tourists: ST to HS, April 28 [1949], AAA.

"I made up my mind": ST to HS, May 20, 1949, AAA.

A flurry of telegrams ensued: ST to AB, November 9, 1948. A series of cryptic telegrams relating to the pregnancy is in ST to HS, May 20 through 31, 1949, AAA. Internal evidence in undated letters in ST to HS, AAA, are most likely June 1949.

It was unpoken between them: Information that follows is from interviews and conversations with HS, particularly October 11, 2007.

"he works three hours a week": ST to AB, September 26, 1949, SSF.

Saul's incomprehension: Ruth Nivola, interview, September 22, 2007; Claire Nivola, interview, July 2, 2008.

"I brace myself": ST to HS, May 31, 1949, AAA.

"If it were not for the parents": ST to HS, n.d. but internal evidence suggests June 2, 1949, AAA.

"We really have to move to the country": ST to HS, "Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend," 1949, AAA.

their "really beautiful" daughter: ST to HS, "Sunday night," n.d. but internal evidence suggests mid-June 1949, AAA.

In a spurt of energy: YCAL, Box 15, "Correspondence with Lindey" contains detailed information and contracts.

"very trying evening": ST to HS, "Monday evening" and "Thursday," n.d. but internal evidence suggests mid-June 1949, AAA.

"drinking lightly": ST to HS, "Friday," n.d. but internal evidence suggests end of June 1949, AAA.

"an architect's own dream house": ST to HS, "Monday" and "Wednesday," June 1949, AAA.

"help their ignorant editors": ST to HS, undated letters, probably JuneJuly 1949, AAA.

They entertained him: ST to HS, "Monday morning after a Friday 13th," June 1949, AAA.

"an architect called Saarinen": Eero Saarinen was then the director of the Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and at the beginning of his career as one of the twentieth century's most renowned architects.

"most convincing letters": ST to HS, "Sat.u.r.day night," probably late June 1949, AAA.

It was his introduction: For many years ST contributed money and original artwork to the synagogue in Trumbull, Connecticut, one of the smallest and most local.

"it's too late now": ST to HS, "Sat.u.r.day night," June 2949, AAA. The book was Israel Without Tears (New York: Current Books, 1950). ST designed the endpapers as well as the jacket cover.

He was to sail on the Queen Mary: Information that follows, until noted otherwise, is from ST to HS, undated letters whose internal evidence suggests June 1522, 1949, AAA.

Steinberg pulled out all his drawings: ST to HS, "Thursday," probably between June 15 and June 18, 1949, AAA.

He liked de Kooning: ST to AB, December 7, 1949, SSF.

As the date to sail approached: At the cat's feeding time, ST always cut a circle in a paper napkin and put it over the cat's head to serve as a bib. Lindner always did the same when he kept it. Priscilla Morgan, interviews and conversations, 2010 and 2011.

Russell Lynes gave a small dinner: When ST gave Lynes a drawing of a naked woman similar to the one he made for Cartier-Bresson's bathtub and the Eameses' chair, Lynes reproduced it in needlepoint. The chair is in Lynes's New York townhouse, where his son, George Lynes, now lives with his family.

To his great surprise (and delight): In his appointment book for 1949, YCAL, Box 3, Folder 2: 1949, he made a list of all the images he wanted to use for the mural, many of which never made it into the final version. The description that follows is from ST to HS, dated "Wed.," but probably before June 15, 1949, AAA, when he sent Girard the first group of final drawings.

After this, he veered back into repet.i.tions: 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 Ca.n.a.l 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. 5054.

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, Va.s.sar 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 ma.s.s 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 d.i.c.kinson'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 14445.

"poor little ambitions": HS to ST, "Sunday night," internal evidence suggests 1958, YCAL, microfilm reels 14445.

However, the circ.u.mstances 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. 5054.

Someone at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: The MGM contract is dated June 30, 1950, YCAL, Box 45, Folder "1950." No doc.u.mentation 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 195455." 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 s.h.i.+pped 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 fibergla.s.s, 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 s.h.i.+pped 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, b.a.l.l.sbridge, Dublin, n.d., and TNY stationery from London, Sat.u.r.day 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 doc.u.ments ..."

he was not officially discharged: SecNav to ST, July 15, 1954, YCAL, Box 7, "Correspondence 195455."

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

Penrose and Miller sent the p.r.i.c.kly Sonia: Roland Penrose and Lee Miller to ST, November 23, 1952, YCAL, Box 8, "Correspondence 1954."