Saul Steinberg Exhibition ‘Give Them a Riddle’ Opens at Pomona College
A Saul Steinberg exhibition opened at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College on August 22, presenting works from a major gift by The Saul Steinberg Foundation.
“Give Them a Riddle”: Gifts from The Saul Steinberg Foundation includes nearly all of the 75 works recently donated by the foundation to the museum. The exhibition covers five decades of Steinberg’s career, from early commercial work and ink drawings to prints, collage, sculpture and drawings made on unconventional surfaces, including metal plates.
The exhibition takes its title from a comment Steinberg made late in his career about one of the functions of art, literature and poetry: “Give them a riddle. Give them a headache!”
Best known for his long association with The New Yorker, Steinberg worked across illustration, drawing, printmaking, collage, sculpture and design. The exhibition looks beyond his magazine work to show how his visual language developed across different media and how he used it to observe and satirize postwar culture.
Steinberg was born in Romania in 1914 and studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. While a student, he began making drawings for Italian publications. He left Fascist Italy in 1941, first going to Santo Domingo before settling in New York the following year.
During World War II, Steinberg served in the Morale Operations Division of the Office of Strategic Services, with assignments in China, North Africa and Italy. Drawings he made from his wartime experiences were published in The New Yorker.
The Benton exhibition moves from Steinberg’s early and mid-career work to later projects, including works produced during periods he spent in California, drawings dealing with architecture and pieces concerned with the process of making art itself.
Among the works described by the museum is a drawing-table relief incorporating Steinberg’s small sculptures of artists’ materials and studio objects. The exhibition also includes examples of his etchings, lithographs and collage.
“Give Them a Riddle” is organized by Victoria Sancho Lobis, director of the Benton Museum of Art and professor of art history at Pomona College, with curatorial intern Arivumani Srivastava ’26.
The exhibition remains on view through January 3, 2027.
Sources
Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College – Exhibition page
https://www.pomona.edu/museum/exhibitions/2026/give-them-riddle
Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College – Official announcement
https://www.pomona.edu/museum/news/2026/07/22-benton-museum-art-celebrates-prolific-life-and-art-saul-steinberg-through-generous
The Saul Steinberg Foundation – Exhibition page
https://saulsteinbergfoundation.org/give-them-a-riddle-gifts-from-the-saul-steinberg-foundation-at-the-benton-museum-of-art-at-pomona-college-claremont-california-august-22-2026-january-3-2027/
Gallery
Three works by Saul Steinberg featured in “Give Them a Riddle”: Gifts from The Saul Steinberg Foundation at the Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College.
