Saul Steinberg

From Grokipedia

Saul Steinberg (June 15, 1914 – May 12, 1999) was a Romanian-born American artist, illustrator, and cartoonist renowned for his satirical and whimsical drawings that captured the absurdities of modern life and American culture, most famously through his long association with The New Yorker magazine, where he contributed covers and illustrations for nearly six decades.

Born in Râmnicu Sărat, Romania, Steinberg initially studied philosophy at the University of Bucharest for one year before pursuing architecture at the Polytechnic University in Milan, from which he graduated in 1940; his early career included satirical drawings for Italian magazines like Bertoldo, but the outbreak of World War II forced him to flee wartime Italy in 1941, arriving in the United States where he became a citizen in 1943 and later served in the U.S. Navy.

Steinberg's oeuvre extended beyond magazine illustration to encompass paintings, sculptures, collages, prints, and mixed-media works, often blending high art with popular culture through visual puns, social commentary, and explorations of language, politics, and identity; his iconic 1976 New Yorker cover View of the World from 9th Avenue, depicting a parochial Manhattan perspective, exemplifies his enduring influence on 20th-century graphic art. His works are held in prestigious collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

In brief

Saul Steinberg made Reliance Group a name boards feared in the era of junk bonds and unsolicited offers. The Chemical Bank fight and other campaigns put him on magazine covers.

The later years were quieter and harder, as leverage always is when the music slows. He remains a type: the Jewish dealmaker who treated a company as a chessboard.