Following quickly upon the cut-paper figures in The Americans was another Steinberg invention. Between 1959 and 1962, he produced paper-bag masks with an array of social species, made famous through the photographs taken by Inge Morath of the artist and his friends wearing the masks in various settings.35 He began with self-portrait masks, which Morath photographed in 1959. He then turned to masks of other personas, photographed in 1961-62.
The idea of disguise is central to Steinberg’s art. In the world as he saw it, everyone wears a mask, whether real or metaphorical. People invent personas through makeup, facial expression, hairstyles, and these facades become who they are. “The mask,” Steinberg wrote, “is a protection against revelation.”36
