Saul Steinberg, Self-Portrait, 1984. Graphite, black pencil, crayon, and colored pencil on paper, 11 x 14 inches. The Saul Steinberg Foundation.

For nearly sixty years, Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) filled the pages of The New Yorker with acerbic, witty drawings that elevated the graphic language of cartoons and illustration to fine art. Born in Romania, he studied philosophy and literature in Bucharest. After enrolling at the Politecnico in Milan as an architecture student in 1933, he began contributing cartoons to the satirical biweekly Bertoldo. On October 25, 1941, while awaiting an entry visa to the United States, Steinberg published his first drawing in The New Yorker. Over the next six decades, 642 drawings and 85 covers captivated New Yorker readers. In these same years, more than 80 one-man shows of Steinberg's art were mounted in museums and galleries throughout America and Europe.

Despite his success in the art world, Steinberg never abandoned magazine reproduction. "I like work to be on the page," he wrote. The New Yorker drawings and covers represent the extraordinary range of his graphic inventiveness and probing mind. Using the styles of high art and popular culture, he turned an affectionate eye on Art Deco architecture, automobiles, diners, baseball players, casinos, and cowboys. But his astute pen also exposed false pieties, cultural affectations, and pompous officialdom. In the pages of The New Yorker, Saul Steinberg kept a journal of 20th-century America.