Chapter thirty-four: furniture as biography

“I go to work as though out of remorse”: ST to AB, April 12, 1971, SSF.

“Here I’ve spent five days”: ST to AB, February 1, 1971, SSF.

He had checked himself into: Bills in YCAL, Box 6, show that his stay in the clinic, Keltenstrasse 48, Zürich, cost approximately $1,000. Before he entered the clinic he stayed at the Hotel Baur au Lac and afterward in the Dolder Grand Hotel. In 1974 he went to the Buchinger-Klinik am Bodensee, on Lake Constance, Switzerland, where he paid 2,000 DM to “take the cure” through fasting and to have medical tests done, primarily on his heart. YCAL, Box 40.

he continued to smoke: In a medical history he gave at Sloan-Kettering Hospital for a 1995 biopsy, he said he smoked one to two packs daily for thirty years but smoked his last cigarette in 1972.

It was one of his two solo exhibitions: Chicago: “Annual Works on Paper;” Corcoran Gallery of Art: “Seven Enormously Popular American Artists”; “Le Dessin d’humour,” Bibliothèque Nationale.

He was a judge: Emily Genauer praised the show for not being “one more opportunistic theme show in this time of Women’s Lib” and praised Steinberg and several others for “quality pieces that are, in several instances, surprisingly offbeat”; Emily Genauer, review of “She,” New York Post, January 16, 1971.

“a couple million scientologists”: Tom Solari to ST, August 4, 1971, YCAL, Box 101. He refers to L. Ron Hubbard’s The Fundamentals of Thought.

Storm clouds explode: Anton van Dalen recalled that Warhol and Steinberg were “intrigued by each other” but he and ST were invited to visit the Factory only once, during the daylight hours, when no one was there to party. Van Dalen called Warhol “an incredibly polite guy and I think he was a fan of Steinberg’s”; Anton van Dalen, interview, October 5, 1007.

“left his study for the streets”: Smith, Steinberg at The New Yorker, p. 41; Anton van Dalen, interview, October 5, 2007.

Some of Steinberg’s ideas: His collection is in YCAL, Boxes 91 and 92.

“evidently lost all sight”: HS to ST, n.d., YCAL, microfilm letters.

“on probation”: SS, calendar for 1971, in which she lists “Mistakes of summer ’71,” YCAL, Box 108; ST to AB, April 12, 1971, SSF.

They returned home despondent: SS, diary, April 13, 1971, YCAL, Box 108.

He relished being in the distinguished company: These names are found on the small scraps of writing in HS’s hand throughout the YCAL boxes, often with her comments about the person’s importance, beauty, or originality.

Steinberg was inordinately proud: ST to AB, November 11, 1971, SSF.

“a writer’s work is a lot more difficult”: ST to Aimé Maeght, October 6, 1971, copy in SSF.

The euphoria dissipated abruptly: ST to AB, January 24, 1973, SSF.

He had flown to Zurich: ST to Aimé Maeght, October 6, 1971, copy in SSF.

The last decision was the most crucial: ST to Sidney Janis, May 1, 1971, YCAL, Box 101. On January 4, 1972, ST thanked Maeght for sending him $50,000 as part of his earnings from prior exhibitions; ST to Aimé Maeght, copy in SSF.

“sensational news”: ST to AB, March 17, 1972, SSF.

“metemphyschosis”: ST to AB, March 17, 1972, SSF; Joyce has Leopold Bloom meditate upon metempsychosis, loosely translated as “the transmigration of the soul,” in Ulysses, episode 8, “Lestrygonians.”

“Saul with warm blue scarf”: ST to SS, Überlingen, January 24, 1972, YCAL, Box 108.

And because Sigrid felt the need: Information that follows is from a list of their travels in a mini-planner kept by ST, YCAL, Box 102; and a MoMA pictorial diary 1971–72, YCAL, Box 3.

One of her best paintings: The painting, done in 1979, was 6 ft. x 6 ft., described by Rose Slivka as “pencil and thin oil of pink tans like skin tones, with greens here and there to indicate water and rivers on a large gray ground.” It hung in ST’s studio in Springs for many years and was the focal point of several exhibitions of SS’s work, particularly the show at Ashawagh Hall in October 1986. See Rose C. S. Slivka, “From the Studio (Sigrid Spaeth),” East Hampton Star, October 9, 1986.

Africa became the only place: SS, diary, YCAL, Box 111.

“of these absurd trips”: ST to AB, March 17, 1972, SSF.

To Hedda, he said merely: HS, interview, October 24, 2007.

“like the previous collections”: ST to AB, June 1, 1972, SSF.

To Aimé Maeght, he said everything was just fine: ST to Aimé Maeght, April 7, 1972, copy in SSF.

It had always been a very special holiday: Throughout her diary writings in YCAL, Boxes 100, 101, 108, and 109, SS always notes if ST sent roses to commemorate the holiday or if he ignored it—a sign that they were estranged.

“struggle against tobacco”: ST to AB, December 9, 1972, SSF.

“beautiful and simple”: ST to AB, September 25, 1972, SSF.

he now had a second studio assistant: Gordon Pulis worked for ST for twenty-two years. In an interview, September 22, 2007, Pulis said, “We didn’t hit it off the first time we met, at a dinner with [William] Gaddis and Muriel [Oxenberg Murphy] and Sigrid. Five years later, I told him about that first dinner. He said nothing that I can remember when I told him we had met before; I think he just stared at me.” Before ST hired Pulis, he hired a woman whose name is not known to help with ink and color drawings. Pulis said, “She was totally incompetent, which is how he came to get my name the second time when he hired me.”

“a bit sinister”: ST to AB, September 25, 1972, SSF.

Sometimes he found a remnant: S:I, p. 40, fig. 31. See also figures of dog tag, datebook, and camera on p. 196.

He began to make other objects as well: Cartier-Bresson’s camera is in the collection of the Fondation Cartier-Bresson, Paris. Helen Levitt’s was in her possession at the time of her death in 2009.

“the rather animal world of painters”: ST to AB, March 10, 1973, SSF.

“I think there were too many”: ST hired Sig Lomaky in the 1960s for occasional help in constructing his wooden sculptures. He writes about Lomaky in R & S, pp. 90–94.

He himself may have been unable: The comment is by Gordon Pulis, interview, September 22, 2007. ST is shown making his own carved wood objects in the last half of the film Du côté chez les Maeght, October 1973. (The first half features Valerio Adami.)

One of the earliest tables: S:I, Catalogue 71, p. 196.

At the top of the tableau: ST often incorporated actual etching plates into the tables.

Steinberg called one of the intriguing: Wood assemblage with crayon and pencil, depicted in S:I, p. 216 bottom.

Many were three-dimensional replicas: He left them to Yale University and they currently make up YCAL, Boxes 134–72. The objects themselves were not in the YCAL bequest and are in SSF.

Whether he referred to them: Gordon Pulis, telephone conversation, June 29, 2010.

Hedda Sterne thought it was because: Ibid.; HS, interview, October 7, 2007; Daniela Roman, conversation, July 27, 2008. Sheila Schwartz confirmed that “Furniture as Biography,” wood assemblage with crayon and pencil, was on the transparency from which the photo in S:I, p. 216, fig. 84, was made. She thinks the title “Grand Hotel” may have been given in the course of preparing the 1987 show and catalogue. According to Pace’s records, the work was returned to ST on May 2, 1989, which is when he probably consigned it to the cellar beneath his studio. Schwartz does not know when or by whom it was disassembled, but she verified that several pieces of it are still extant, now owned by SSF.

One of the most revealing wooden constructions: Pencil and mixed media on wood assemblage, depicted in S:I, p. 216, fig. 84.

“in fact, I’m preparing a show”: ST to AB, March 10, 1973, SSF.

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