Self-Portrait, Drawing c. 1986s

Here we have a drawing, a self-portrait, made by Saul Steinberg on a page torn from a notebook. The starkness of the black ink on the bright white paper feels immediate. The line itself does so much of the work, wobbling between caricature and cartoon. I'm particularly drawn to the eye, a perfect circle with a smaller circle inside, and a tiny dot for the pupil. It's such a simple mark, but it gives the whole face a sense of alertness, as if the eye is both seeing and being seen, simultaneously. The pen line that traces his own hand holding a drawing implement shows Steinberg is deeply attuned to the performative aspect of art-making. Steinberg's playful line reminds me a little of Picasso’s ink drawings, but where Picasso is all virtuoso elegance, Steinberg is more interested in the quirky and the absurd. Like all great drawings, it’s less about what it represents, and more about the artist’s unique way of seeing.