David Byrne, Human Skyline (For Wall Drawing), 2025 © David Byrne; Saul Steinberg, Untitled, 1949-1954 © The Saul Steinberg Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

David Byrne/Saul Steinberg

Influence and Affinity

Past
May 28 – 1, 2026
New York

125 Newbury will present an exhibition of work by David Byrne and Saul Steinberg from May 28 through August 1. Placing drawings, watercolors, prints, and collages by Steinberg in conversation with drawings and never-before-seen banner works by Byrne, David Byrne/Saul Steinberg: Influence and Affinity speaks to the artists’ shared sense of wry humor in concert with their sharp observation and expansive creativity. Separated by generations, their work springs philosophically from the same insights and observations.

Celebrated for his sculptures, photographs, and works on paper that transform the signs and symbols of modern life into something surreal, Steinberg approached his subjects with both fondness and irony. Steinberg was the major artist-philosopher of the ’40s and ’50s, recording society’s accomplishments and foibles in drawings that often became pages and covers of The New Yorker. To a broad audience he may have been known as a cartoonist, but in truth he was a draftsman making art of great consequence, navigating varied topics and forms to examine the changing world around him. He produced dynamic images across painting, drawing, assemblage, and calligraphy, often incorporating ready-made materials like sheet music paper and brown paper bags in groundbreaking and unexpected ways. Depicting city scenes, still lifes, landscapes, portraits, and more, Steinberg’s work has proved pivotal and inspiring to generations of artists that followed.

Known as a multi-disciplinary artist and musician, David Byrne has developed his practice across drawing, photography, installation, performance, and design over five decades. His distinct style is characterized by a bold yet sparing use of line, turning everyday objects and images into otherworldly, often humorous tableaus. Though he had been drawing for many years prior, it was in 2020, amid the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, when drawings began to pour out of him, unconsciously revealed. Byrne’s drawings from this period—which feature in 125 Newbury’s presentation—of bodies, dreams and nightmares, and the surrounding city represent his response to the social and emotional conditions of that time.

Citing Steinberg as an inspiration for his own practice, Byrne explains, “I became aware of Steinberg’s drawings in magazines when I was young. Profoundly clever, humorous and inventive, it seemed to me that they were illustrations, but at the same time they transcended ‘mere’ illustrations… This was all very inspiring for me as a young person dreaming of a creative future life of

some sort. I loved his drawings, but equally it was exciting to see the categories breaking down. I realized some things might be able to be expressed better in a drawing rather than a song.”

Similarly to Steinberg’s oeuvre, Byrne’s drawings examine the glimmers, disappointments, and connective tissues of our everyday lives. Just as Steinberg was shaped by his experiences as an observant traveler, Byrne has carried his diverse experiences from beyond the art world into the context of the gallery.

Featuring a focused selection of works by each artist to provide a window into their singular practices, David Byrne/Saul Steinberg: Influence and Affinity is comprised of Byrne’s drawings from 2006 to present along with works on paper, wood, and canvas made by Steinberg between 1949 and 1996. The exhibition highlights the artists’ contact points and shared sensibilities through an installation that emphasizes their overlapping themes and styles across time. Large-format works from both artists will be shown, including an important suite of six drawings by Steinberg that comprise a cityscape and the debut of a new series of vibrant textile banners created by Byrne this year. Echoing the signs and symbols of various fraternal organizations—like the Masons, Odd Fellows, and Elks—these tapestries incorporate vintage trims and tassels with hand-embroidered elements that imbue his images with immediacy.

“Very exciting to be invited to show alongside Steinberg. Hope he doesn’t mind wherever he is.” — David Byrne

David Byrne

David Byrne was raised in Baltimore where he briefly attended the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 1971 after transferring from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. Byrne studied photography, performance, and video production at MICA. In 1975, Byrne co-founded the group Talking Heads, who in the 1980s introduced an innovative visual approach to their performances. Byrne has been involved with photography, drawing, installations, performance and design since college and has been publishing and exhibiting his work since the 90s. Like his music, Byrne’s visual work has the capacity to elevate and transform ordinary elements into iconic ones and challenges our fundamental notions of what can be classified as art.

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Saul Steinberg

Saul Steinberg produced drawings, sculptures, photographs, and collages that continue to elicit critical contemplation. Having studied architecture in Milan, he fled wartime Italy in 1940 and became an American citizen three years later. Influenced by Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, and Pop, Steinberg’s varied output reflects the defiant humor, curiosity, and modernist attitude of an artist trying to make sense of the chaotic postwar period. Marked by a self-aware wit, his work embraces double meanings and philosophical content expressed through graphic means. Widely celebrated for his contributions to The New Yorker, Steinberg’s art became an exploration of social and political systems, language, and art itself.

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