[Woman on Steps]

Saul Steinberg

1950 · Gelatin silver print with applied media · Photographs

Appearing as if sketched on a city stoop, this well-dressed woman is not quite what she seems: Steinberg inked her image onto the surface of his print, stretching the limits of street photography. The illustrator took cues from graffiti while also playfully reimagining the chalk outlines found at crime scenes. Whether marking up photographs, as here, or drawing on objects that he then photographed, Steinberg effortlessly upended media hierarchies to create hybrid works of art. This piece may be an outtake from his New York–themed series for the magazine Flair, which pictured anthropomorphic office furniture and a trash bag skyline. Steinberg’s sidewalk society lady is right at home in that urban imaginary, as cartoonish as the city itself.

Artist

Saul Steinberg

Date

1950

Medium

Gelatin silver print with applied media

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2020