abstracted image; two Art Deco style buildings with text ("HURRIS" and "KOSM... DINN..") at left and right edges; radiating Art Deco vertical tower-like sign at center: "MOTEL"; flat, barren landscape; curving parallel lines in sky forming clouds; various round, oval, and rectangular stamps in blue and black with sculpture and landscape motifs and illegible handwriting

%C2%A9 The Saul Steinberg Foundation %2F Artists Rights Society %28ARS%29%2C New York

Untitled, 1969

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On View in Gallery 353expand_more

We’ve landed in a funky, futuristic landscape with Art Deco buildings on a barren plain. But the buildings seem remarkably short, and they lack windows and doors. Are we just looking at the tops of structures that have been submerged in smog or water' The buildings are labeled Hubris, Motel, and Kos[her'] Diner. Below the image, in the foreground, rising over the horizon, and floating in the air very official-looking rubber stamps, all of which are illegible. They seem to have great authority, but we can’t understand them. In contrast to what seems an earthly dystopia, the sky is bright and full of wispy clouds.

Saul Steinberg made this drawing in 1969, a period of violence and strife in America and beyond [think Vietnam War and the protests against it], a period also punctuated by moments of great optimism, such as Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon.

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Details
Title
Untitled
Artist Life
1914–1999
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2018.122.5
Provenance
The artist, New York; Saul Steinberg Foundation, New York; given to MIA, 2018
Curator Approved

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abstracted image; two Art Deco style buildings with text ("HURRIS" and "KOSM... DINN..") at left and right edges; radiating Art Deco vertical tower-like sign at center: "MOTEL"; flat, barren landscape; curving parallel lines in sky forming clouds; various round, oval, and rectangular stamps in blue and black with sculpture and landscape motifs and illegible handwriting

© The Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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