David Byrne and Saul Steinberg: Influence and Affinity places drawings, watercolors, prints, and collages by Steinberg in conversation with drawings and never-before-seen banner works by Byrne, tracing a shared sense of wry humor, sharp observation, and expansive creativity across generations. Steinberg — the major artist-philosopher of the 1940s and 50s, whose New Yorker covers transformed signs and symbols of modern life into something surreal — is cited directly by Byrne as an inspiration: "I realized some things might be able to be expressed better in a drawing rather than a song." Byrne's new textile banners, echoing the iconography of fraternal organizations with vintage trims and hand embroidery, make their debut alongside pandemic-era drawings and Steinberg's landmark cityscape suite.
