I’m sure you have seen the above delightful ‘Unboxed’ Audi Q5 commercial. But I’d like to make a plug for, what I feel sure must have been its genesis. This…
It’s by the
late great Saul Stineberg 1914-1999…
He was one of America’s favorite artists. His work was, and still is, full of inventiveness, wit and beauty. It graced the pages of the New Yorker for nearly sixty years and he was an inspiration to many of the twentieth century’s designers and illustrators. Steinberg took his lines to places where few other illustrators would dare to venture…
You can catch some of his work in Saul
Steinberg: Illuminations at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London until
February 15
I was in London for three days at Xmas and saw this exhibition advertised in Time Out. But beautiful as the DPG is, it's a bugger to get to from the West End - AND it was freezing - so I had to forego it. I discovered Steinberg, many years ago, from a book - The Passport printed in 1954 which I found in a car-boot-sale. One of the best 50pence's I ever spent. I never realised he was responsible for the New Yorker cover. I guess I just didn't put the two things together. Of all the "things" I've disposed of in the last few years - to clear my life of junk - I'm glad that book was not one of them. From the sheer wit of his ideas to the sublime beauty of (and meaninglessness) of his superb calligraphy (or rather penmanship). Not to mention that he was prolific in the extreme.
In this day and age of magazines filled with "artistic" scribbles and the whole Moleskin phenomenon - Flickr is awash with Moleskin groups - it's great to look back on the work of someone like this and see the brilliance of every line, squiggle and blot.
Posted by: David Brown | January 22, 2009 at 06:18 PM