Saul Steinberg

(American, 1914-1999)

Mesa with Figures

, 1971

watercolor, ink, pencil, and rubber stamp on paper

signed Steinberg and dated (lower right)

19 x 14 1/4 inches.

Provenance:

The Estate of the artist, New York

The Saul Steinberg Foundation, New York

Exhibited:

East Hampton, New York, Guild Hall Museum, Saul Steinberg, May 8-June 13, 1993, no. 3

Literature:

Steinberg, Saul & Strassfield, Christina

Saul Steinberg, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY, 1993, no. 3

Lot Esssay:

Mesa with Figures is one of Steinberg’s postcard-style landscapes. Exquisitely brushed or sponged in oil or thin watercolor wash, they are simple compositions, with cloud-sky formations above, punctuated by rubber stamp sun-seals, and a horizontal expanse of flat land and/or water below; sometimes a bit of faux calligraphy feigns elucidation. They are peopled with rubber-stamp figures, the kind of embellishments called staffage in earlier landscape painting. “If I use a rubber stamp…I do it to show that this paint is not real paint, it’s a symbol of the thing painted.” Steinberg didn’t depict nature, but nature as translated by art, from high to low, the low end here represented by the clichéd vistas of tourist postcards. Explaining one of his multipaneled postcard-style landscapes to an interviewer, he said:

“These postcards represent not the reality, not the truth—they represent our convention and our idea of what nature looks like. So in a sense, the greatest influence [on] landscape has been Poussin, [one of] the inventors of landscapes, who have also been the inventors of the postcards. So that now nature looks to us like imitating art, …or it imitates the slapstick of the sunset, all the histrionics of nature and light and sun.”

The titles of the postcard-style landscapes are often as generic as the compositions— “landscape,” “sunset,” or just “postcard”; but they are just as often christened with the name of a locale where Steinberg lived or visited. Travelogue by fiat.

To request further details about this lot, please email conditionreports@freemansauction.com

Joseph Stanfield

Senior Vice President, Director, Fine Art

josephstanfield@hindmanauctions.com 312.280.1212

As the head of Hindman’s Fine Art Department, Mr. Stanfield is instrumental in bringing in major consignments from private collectors, estates, dealers and institutions. He has led the department to dozens of auction records, with a particular focus on Chicago Modernism. Mr. Stanfield has played an integral role in the development of the American & European and Post War & Contemporary Art categories, with the most successful year for the department in company history coming in 2021. He also oversaw a house record for total sales for a week of Fine Art auctions in May 2022. Mr. Stanfield is also the lead auctioneer for the Fine Art sales at Hindman. Prior to returning to Hindman in 2019, he was at Toomey & Co. for eight years, where he oversaw important collections including the estate of Candice B. Groot, the collection of Governor Jim Thompson, and the estate of Robert E. Beck. Mr. Stanfield earned a BA from the University of Kansas where he studied Art History.

Zack Wirsum

SVP, Head of Department, Post War and Contemporary Art

zacharywirsum@freemansauction.com 312.600.6069

Mr. Wirsum joined the firm in 2007 as a Fine Art registrar and became a department specialist in 2013, with a focus on Post War and Contemporary art. Through his vision, the department has achieved record breaking prices. Mr. Wirsum evaluates and appraises well over 5,000 works of art each year, collaborating with leading international committees and experts on authentication. Prior to joining Freeman's, Mr. Wirsum served as an assistant director and conservator at the Chicago Conservation Center. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a practicing painter with gallery representation.

Post War and Contemporary Art

Mesa with Figures

Lot Description

Condition Report

Preview

Auction Contact

Shipping | Pickup