Giant Lemon Squeezer c. 1986s

Curator: This graphite drawing, dating from the 1980s, is Saul Steinberg's "Giant Lemon Squeezer." Editor: My first thought is how imposing and alien the object is; it's a wonderfully unsettling contrast of scale! It makes you question familiar things, a domestic tool of that size... Curator: Scale is crucial. The tiny figure on the right really emphasizes the dramatic exaggeration, inviting interpretations of power, technology, even the absurd. The composition emphasizes geometric forms, pure lines on paper. Editor: Absolutely. And lemons are loaded, aren't they? Bitterness, sourness, yes, but also vibrancy, cleansing, refreshment. Making something giant, Steinberg perhaps implies an outsize presence for simple human acts? Almost as if exaggerating modern living through scale. Curator: Good point! Consider too the precision and lack of shading; it isn't about representing reality, but dissecting its elements: line, shape, spatial relationships. Editor: It’s that detachment, isn’t it? Makes it almost architectural in presence; a blueprint. But for what? Squeezing out meaning, squeezing experience? Is the lemon squeezer about utility, or more about modern existence being amplified beyond the reasonable? Curator: Possibly both! Steinberg masterfully blends modern aesthetics with deeper cultural anxieties and a quiet but very pervasive playfulness. Editor: The piece invites you to consider scale, doesn’t it? Its geometric purity reveals a complexity beyond the immediate form, and it all leaves a residue long after you leave the room.