Self-Portrait in Profile c. 1986s

Saul Steinberg drew this self-portrait in profile with ink on paper. Look how Steinberg lays down these simple lines, like he’s feeling his way through a maze. It's almost like he's constructing his face out of thin air, a face as a puzzle. The lines are pretty uniform, like one long strand of thought. There’s a kind of playful geometry happening here. His eye is a perfect circle, cut into shapes. And that cross-hatching in his hair, it's like a little rhythmic pattern just hanging out on his head. I think it’s about seeing yourself, not as one solid thing, but as a collection of lines, shapes, ideas. Steinberg reminds me of Picasso, who also used these deceptively simple strokes to deconstruct and then reconstruct a face. But where Picasso feels analytical, Steinberg feels more like a wry smile. For him, art is a kind of game, a way to think through the world using the simplest tools.