Saul Steinberg produced drawings, sculptures, photographs, and collages that continue make people smile and reconsider illustration. Widely celebrated for his contributions to The New Yorker, Steinberg’s art became an exploration of social and political systems, language, and art itself.

Having visited his friends Ray and Charles Eames at their LA office, Steinberg ofte drew the studio’s walls, floors and furniture. From 14th June, Vitra, producer of the Eames chairs, will launch a special limited edition of the chair featuring Steinberg’s cat, and made available to 500 pieces only.

Having studied architecture in Milan, he fled wartime Italy in 1941 and became an American citizen two years later. Influenced by Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, and Pop, Steinberg’s varied output reflects the defiant humour, curiosity, and modernist attitude of an artist trying to make sense of the chaotic postwar period. Marked by a self-aware wit, his work embraces double meanings and philosophical content expressed through graphic means. Widely celebrated for his contributions to The New Yorker, Steinberg’s art became an exploration of social and political systems, language, and art itself.

Vitra collaborated closely with the Eames office and Herman Miller, enlisting a company to scan the original chair and create a model that became the starting point for the new design. This allowed the company to reproduce Steinberg’s intervention in as much detail as possible, painstakingly recreating his drawing onto the chair’s modern version.

–

Images: courtesy Vitra.