Mask and Face. Inge Morath and Saul Steinberg

Mounted on occasion of the Austrian photographer Inge Morath’s (Graz, AT, 1923–New York, NY, US, 2002) centenary, the exhibition presents vintage prints from the “Masks” series, created in collaboration with the graphic artist Saul Steinberg (Râmnicu Sărat, RO, 1914–New York, NY, US, 1999). When Morath first visited him in 1959, expecting to take his picture, Steinberg wore a paper-bag mask on which he had drawn a self-portrait. The exhibition is the first to showcase some of the original masks, gifted to the Museum der Moderne Salzburg by The Saul Steinberg Foundation, together with the photographs Morath took between 1959 and 1962, which included other masks of diverse characters that became famous thanks to Morath’s photographs.  The creative collaboration between Morath and Steinberg, best known for his drawings in the magazine The New Yorker as well as art for galleries and museums, has been hailed as one of the most interesting instances of teamwork between a graphic artist and a photographer, and marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship.