Saul SteinbergThe Americans

On eight free-standing tableaux with a total length of more than seventy metres, Saul Steinberg created an imposing collage on the American way of life for the American pavilion at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, calling it simply “The Americans.” Now, for the first time, the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, is showing the complete ensemble again – supplemented by further drawings, collages and magazine illustrations. Saul Steinberg, born in Romania in 1914 and died in New York in 1999, began studying architecture in Milan in 1932 and then, in 1941, attempted to emigrate to the USA on a passport whose stamp he had forged himself, only to be deported to the Dominican Republic. From there he sent his drawings to the “New Yorker,” and so in the end succeeded in reaching the USA after all. “The Americans” is regarded as the high point of Saul Steinberg’s artistic work, which made him known above all as a gifted illustrator for the “New Yorker.” In 1976 a labyrinthine view of the city of New York adorned the cover of the magazine of the same name, and made Steinberg famous. The book not only documents “The Americans” comprehensively in outstanding illustrations, but for the first time impressively shows the mix of the most diverse media – drawing, photography, wallpaper patterns, packing paper and comic fragments. Exhibition and book therefore serve not only as a rediscovery, but for the first time also allow an authentic view of the opportunities for encountering metropolitan and rural America that the first World’s Fair in post-war Europe offered.

Exhibition:
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 23/3 – 23/6/2013