Saul Steinberg
dal 21/3/2013 al 22/6/2013
Segnalato da
21/3/2013
Saul Steinberg
Museum Ludwig, Koln
The exhibition features the complete collage-tableaux 'The Americans' for the first time since he created it in 1958 for the Brussels World's Fair. It's accompanied by a selection of related drawings from the 1950s and by a large number of the artist's magazine illustrations.
curated by Andreas Prinzing
The Museum Ludwig is exhibiting the complete collage-tableaux The Americans by U.S.
illustrator and cartoonist Saul Steinberg (1914–1999) for the first time since he created
it in 1958 for the Brussels World’s Fair. The mural collage will be accompanied by a
selection of related drawings from the 1950s and by a large number of the artist’s
magazine illustrations.
Romanian-born Steinberg studied architecture in Milan before emigrating in the
early 1940s to America. He settled in New York and achieved eminence chiefly as a
result of the covers he designed for The New Yorker. For the U.S. pavilion at Expo 1958
in Brussels—the first world’s fair to be mounted after World War II—he created a large-
scale mural collage consisting of eight panels with a total length of over seventy meters.
They present a critical panorama of everyday life in America, ranging from the hustle and
bustle of the big city to the apparently idyllic world of rural communities. An array of
collaged human figures dominates the foreground, sometimes singly, sometimes densely
packed, always against a background of enlarged photographs of drawings. The figures
testify to Steinberg’s assimilation of a wide range of artistic influences and to his creative
engagement with a variety of media and materials, including drawing, photography,
wallpaper, and scraps of packing paper and comics. His view of the American way of life,
though affectionately humorous, does not exclude its darker aspects.
After Expo 58 the mural entered the collection of the Musées Royaux des Beaux-
Arts in Brussels. Sections have been exhibited since, but the huge dimensions of the
work have until now prevented it being shown again in its entirety.
The exhibition, which is accompanied by a catalogue in English and German, is
organized in close cooperation with the Saul Steinberg Foundation, New York.
Image: The Americans. Farmers - Middle West (detail), 1958 Collage aus ausgeschnittenem oder -gerissenem Packpapier und aus Tapete, Wachskreide, Pastell, Tusche, Öl auf bedrucktem Fotopapier, geklebt auf Karton und auf doppelt-dicker Triplex-Platte befestigt 6 Tafeln 300 x 90 cm, 1 Tafel 300 x 64 cm. Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Bruxelles © The Saul Steinberg Foundation / VG Bild-Kunst 2013
Press contact:
Anne Niermann / Leonie Pfennig
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
fon +49 (0)221 - 221 - 23491
fon +49 (0)221 - 221 - 23003
niermann@museum-ludwig.de -
leonie.pfennig@museum-ludwig.de
Press reception: March 20, 11 a.m.
Opening: March 22, 7 p.m.
Museum Ludwig
Heinrich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Köln
Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday (incl. public holidays): 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Every first Thursday of the month 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Closed on Monday
The museum is open regularly on Easter Monday (April 1, 2013)
Admission
All tickets are valid the whole day long and grant admission to the collections and all special exhibitions.
Adults: € 10, concessions: € 7 (Children under 14, school students, college students, trainees (Azubis), military/alternative service conscripts on production of a valid ID, owners of the "Köln-Pass")
Families: € 20,00
Groups (20 people and over): € 7.50 per person
School classes incl. teacher: free entrance to the collection
€ 4 per pupil/teacher for the special exhibition