1958

January, begins working on Brussels mural commission, now titled The Americans—8 themed sections, 10 feet high and 240 feet in total length.

February 27, sends the first drawings to Bernard Rudofsky.

March, buys a Jaguar with money received for the Brussels mural. It is delivered to him in Brussels and later shipped back to the US.

March 16, arrives in Brussels to work on The Americans. He has made drawings for the backgrounds, which are photographically enlarged and affixed to the 8 sections. He now has to add cutouts, collaged figures, and other elements. The project is beset by technical problems, especially with glue that doesn’t hold. Finds that he has to make 100 more figures than anticipated.

Steinberg at work on The Americans, US Pavilion, Brussels World’s Fair, March-April, 1958. — Steinberg at work on *The Americans*, US Pavilion, Brussels World’s Fair, March-April, 1958.

Installation view of The Americans, US Pavilion, Brussels World’s Fair. — Installation view of *The Americans*, US Pavilion, Brussels World’s Fair.

Background drawing for <em>The Road—South and West</em>, 1958. Ink and colored pencil on cardboard, 30 1/8 x 22 1/8 in. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne/CCI, París; Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation to the American Friends of the Centre Pompidou (2017), gifted to the Centre Pompidou (2022). — Background drawing for *The Road—South and West*, 1958. Ink and colored pencil on cardboard, 30 1/8 x 22 1/8 in. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne/CCI, París; Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation to the American Friends of the Centre Pompidou (2017), gifted to the Centre Pompidou (2022).

Background drawing for The Road—South and West, 1958. Ink on paper, 30 x 22 in. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne/CCI, París; Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation to the American Friends of the Centre Pompidou (2017), gifted to the Centre Pompidou (2022). — Background drawing for *The Road—South and West*, 1958. Ink on paper, 30 x 22 in. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne/CCI, París; Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation to the American Friends of the Centre Pompidou (2017), gifted to the Centre Pompidou (2022).

The Road—South and West, from The Americans, 1958. Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. — *The Road—South and West*, from *The Americans*, 1958. Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.

Detail from Downtown—Big City, from The Americans, 1958. Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. — Detail from *Downtown—Big City*, from *The Americans*, 1958. Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.

Detail from Main Street—Small Town, from The Americans, 1958. Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. — Detail from *Main Street—Small Town*, from *The Americans*, 1958. Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique.

April 16, the day before the pavilion opens to the public, he drives to Paris; a week later, to Nice to visit parents. Then on to Rome and Milan; leaves on May 12 for another stay in Nice.

May 16, visits Picasso at his villa “La Californie” in Nice. Together, they do four “exquisite corpse” drawings. ST keeps two and frames them. On July 8, he sends Picasso a diploma with faux calligraphy and, in December, a Christmas card.

Exquisite Corpse drawing made with Picasso, May 16, 1958. Crayon and pencil on paper, 10 ¼ x 6 ¾ in. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Exquisite Corpse drawing made with Picasso, May 16, 1958. Ink on paper, 10 ¼ x 6 ¾ in. Private collection.

Back in New York by the end of May.

June 5, first performance of the revised version of Jerome Robbins’s The Concert with new ST backdrop at the Festival of Two Worlds, Spoleto, directed by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Steinberg’s revised backdrop for Jerome Robbins’s ballet The Concert, 1958, as installed at the festival "The Diaghilev Seasons: Perm-Petersburg-Paris," 2011. — Steinberg’s revised backdrop for Jerome Robbins’s ballet *The Concert*, 1958, as installed at the festival “The Diaghilev Seasons: Perm-Petersburg-Paris,” 2011.

July 2, ST’s sister and her family move to Paris. His parents remain in Nice.

July, a travel sketchbook records a driving tour through the American South—“Aberdeen, MD, South Hill, VA, Greensboro, NC, Greensville, SC, Chattanooga, Ten., Athens, GA, Motel 119 Toler KY, Middlesboro KY—Belfry—near Williamstown W Va. Uniontown PA.” He writes to Buzzi, “I’ve seen poor coal-mining localities in Kentucky and West Virginia. An old America, religion, violence, horrible landscapes, miners living in African villages. Here’s where they ought to make a film.”

Three pages from a sketchbook with drawings of the American South, 1958. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

December 1, flies to Copenhagen. Mathematician Piet Hein introduces him to Danish film director Carl Theodore Dreyer. Agrees to contact William Faulkner with Dreyer’s proposal to turn several Faulkner novels into films.

December 9, flies to Hamburg, then goes to Paris by train; December 21, flies back to New York.

Publication of the first, Paris edition of Robert Frank’s photo book Les Américains by Delpire Éditeur, with a cover drawing by Steinberg. In the subsequent US edition, the drawing is replaced by a Frank photo.