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Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Untitled

Is there someone or something you never want to forget?

Gutzon Borglum led a team of skilled carvers to sculpt his design for Mount Rushmore into the Black Hills, the Lakota ancestral land of present-day South Dakota. Printmaker Reginald Marsh depicted a monument he often passed in Union Square Park, drawing it from below so Geroge Washington appears even larger than nearby skyscrapers.

Unlike Washington and Mount Rushmore, artist Saul Steinberg’s monument to an anonymous figure wearing a headdress is imaginary. Like Marsh, Steinberg was interested in political commentary, often drawing imagined politicians, buildings, and monuments with cheeky hidden messages. [120 without any of the question prompts]

ArtistSaul Steinberg, Romanian American, 1914–1999
Date1966
MediumInk, pencil, and rubber stamp on paper
Dimensions23 1/4 x 29 in. (59.1 x 73.7 cm)
Signedu.r., in black ink: Steinberg / 1966
Mark(s)recto, u.r., in red ink: [illegible stamp] recto, u.r., in black ink: [illegible stamp] recto, u.r., in red ink: RUBBERSTAMP recto, c.r., in black ink: [illegible stamp] verso, on paper: illustrated stamps
Inscription(s)verso, l.l., in pencil: 6360 Drawer 82 verso, l.r., in pencil: PW# 31550
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Gift of The Saul Steinberg Foundation, 2024.86
ClassificationDrawing
ProvenanceArtist; to Estate of the Artist, 1999; to The Saul Steinberg Foundation, New York, NY; given to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2024
On ViewYes
Untitled23.3 × 29 in.Tennis Ball2.7 in. diameter

This artwork's face covers about 92× the area of a tennis ball.Drawn to the same scale.