Subway 1954

Saul Steinberg made this piece, Subway, on paper sometime in the mid-twentieth century. The colors are dusty and muted, kind of like the atmosphere in the subway itself, smudged with charcoal, crayon, and a little watercolor maybe. The image is built up from different marks, it's all about process, the pushing and pulling of the medium across the page. Like in those red shoes, for instance, awkwardly drawn and filled with color, or the different heads piled on top of each other. It's like a quick sketch, full of hesitation. The texture of the paper really comes through and the different layers overlap. But he still lets the ground come through in places. It reminds me a little of Red Grooms with the caricatured and exaggerated figures. And you know, it makes me think about how our experience of public spaces is always mediated through the weirdness of our own perception.