Via Aerea 1969

Editor: So this is Saul Steinberg’s "Via Aerea," created in 1969. It looks like a mixed-media drawing on aged paper. It’s quite abstract, almost like an architectural sketch. I’m drawn to the collage elements, like the fragments of envelopes. What’s your take on it? Curator: What I find interesting is how Steinberg uses these everyday materials—the envelopes, the aged paper—to construct an image that teeters between representation and abstraction. It begs the question, doesn’t it, of what constitutes "art" when the very materials challenge the traditional boundaries of high art and craft? Are these simply scraps, or are they deliberate choices that speak to the postal system’s impact? Editor: That's interesting. I hadn’t considered the postal system angle, just the geometric shapes. So, the materials themselves are significant, not just the image they create? Curator: Exactly. The lines and shapes he creates might suggest buildings or aerial views, but look closer: they are formed from elements of postal communication – consider also the social implications of using "aged paper" in a 1969 artwork. The materials speak of labour, movement, communication; it questions the mass consumption of products, then and now. It suggests perhaps a critique of industrial production, camouflaged as something innocent or mundane. What do you think of the labor behind using those particular colours and medium, rather than the ordinary dark ink you'd see in that era? Editor: It makes me think about how we often overlook the physical objects that enable even our most abstract ideas, especially the tools of communication we now take for granted. So it’s less about the "what" and more about the "how" and "from what"? Curator: Precisely. We must question art’s function within these processes. Seeing this image, what I initially believed about what constitutes high art has truly changed, due to thinking about Steinberg's tools of labor. Editor: I will be doing the same. Thank you for elaborating on that!