Sam Steinberg (artist)

Sam Steinberg (1897-1982) was an American outsider art painter from The Bronx, New York. Though he exhibited his work exclusively on the campus of Columbia University campus, his style was one of the first identified as "outsider," an approach coined by art critic Roger Cardinal circa 1972, after Jean Dubuffet's art brut.

Suffering from a debilitating hairlessness disease, atrichia with papular lesions, Steinberg was classified 4F in both world wars. In the late 1930's, he and his mother started visiting Columbia daily to sell chocolate bars.

Sam spontaneously began showing and selling his paintings in 1967. He purchased illustration boards and paints from local stationery stores; eventually shifting to permanent magic marker pens. Steinberg's subjects ranged from animals to popular culture figures like Santa Claus and Elvis Presley, but his favorite muses were most certainly his interpretations of cats and "boids." After riding three New York City subway to arrive, he was usually carrying three or fresh paintings (often as many as 20 per week), which, during the 1970's sold for $2.50 (rising to $3.50 by 1980). A campus art institution, it was a rare Columbia College dormitory room that didn't have at least one "Sam" hanging up. His one known example of a commercial use of his paintings was in 1973, for a jazz fusion album recorded by a former Columbia student, Marc Copland on a label, Oblivion Records co-founded by another, Fred Seibert.

Through his last decades, Steinberg shared an apartment and his art with his younger sister Pauline.

See also

• Outsider art

External links

• A Sam Steinberg album cover
• Sam Steinberg photographic portraits
• New York Times Obituary