Themes

The series of 1952-55 exhibitions marked the first time Steinberg’s art enjoyed broad international exposure.¹⁸ As was not uncommon at the time, even in museum shows, works of living artists were for sale, and Steinberg’s sold well. Russell Lynes reported that at the Parsons-Janis show “some buyers, who couldn’t wait until the show was over to take their purchases home, removed them, and Steinberg substituted others.”¹⁹ Though some of the drawings at each venue could differ, the thematic organization of the shows remained fixed. Here Steinberg presented subjects not usually found in his magazine work, among them cowboys and the Wild West, gambling, urban and small-town architecture, railroad trains and stations, more diverse views of women, false documents, drawings on graph paper and sheet music. Many such works were published in The Art of Living and The Passport, including Steinberg’s lampoons of chair designs, an idea broached during his Bertoldo days.²⁰

A highlight of several of the 1952-55 shows was the panoramic Parade series. One set of eleven panels on exhibition had been prepurchased from Betty Parsons by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. So Steinberg, a self-described “parade addict,” made a variant set to add to the installation and travel on. The American parade was just made for his inquisitive eye: “It gives me an excuse to be staring at people.”²¹