Saul Steinberg

Irving Penn (1917-2009), one of the undisputed masters of twentieth-century photography, is known for his iconic images of haute couture and still life, but also, and above all, for his magnificent portraits of the artists, writers and celebrities who marked the cultural landscape of their time.

Saul Steinberg (1914-1999) was an American artist. He quickly became very successful thanks to his drawings and press illustrations, in particular for the New Yorker magazine, for which he produced over 90 covers. A jack-of-all-trades, between 1959 and 1962 he produced hundreds of paper masks like this one. The idea of disguise is at the heart of Steinberg’s art. In the world as he sees it, everyone wears a mask, whether real or metaphorical. « The mask is a protection against revelation, » he says.

This photograph was shown for the first time by Pinault Collection in 2023 during the exhibition “Irving Penn, Artists' Portraits”, Villa Les Roches Brunes, Dinard.