1964

New Year’s Eve in Bombay, followed by visits to Calcutta, Bangkok, and Hong Kong. Arrives in Tokyo, January 6, spends two weeks visiting cities in Japan, then flies back to New York.

Steinberg’s Paperback published, a German compilation of drawings from ST’s previous books.

April 29, writes to Aldo Buzzi about his current work: “Now I’m doing collages,… and in a natural way I’m rediscovering cubism. These drawings are jokes about art history and the conventions of drawing, still lifes representing not objects but elements of drawing and painting combined with ‘speech balloons’ placed on the tables of still lifes. They are a mix of things said and things seen or done.”

Untitled, 1965. Pencil, ink, colored pencil, and collage on paper, 22 ¼ x 27 ½ in. Private collection.
Untitled, 1965. Pencil, ink, colored pencil, and collage on paper, 22 ¼ x 27 ½ in. Private collection.

August, with Sigrid, makes a road trip through the Midwest and Southwest. Begins in Wheeling, West Virginia, on August 4, then drives to Ohio, Iowa, and Wyoming, where he visits cousins in Cheyenne; on to Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi, and Georgia. “Between Utah and Arizona,” he tells Buzzi, “there’s Monument Valley, the red desert of the Navajos, maybe the most beautiful and fearful part ever seen. Indian villages—beautiful names: Tuba City, Kayenta (probably Caliente), Mexican Hat. They’re frightening because they’re in America. There’s an air of the concentration camp on the reservations.”

Postcard of Checkerboard Mesa, Utah, c. 1964, from Steinberg’s collection. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Postcard of Checkerboard Mesa, Utah, c. 1964, from Steinberg’s collection. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Untitled, 1980s, based on Steinberg’s postcard of Checkerboard Mesa. Pencil and charcoal on paper, 13 ½ x 17 in. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Untitled, 1980s, based on Steinberg’s postcard of Checkerboard Mesa. Pencil and charcoal on paper, 13 ½ x 17 in. Saul Steinberg Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
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