Saul Steinberg/Ugo Mulas, Graffiti, 2024

In 1961, Saul Steinberg (Râmnicu Sărat, 1914 – New York, 1999), a Romanian-born American designer and illustrator, one of the most important artists of the 20th century, accepted Ernesto Rogers’ invitation to work on the atrium of the Palazzina Mayer in Milan. He decided, for the first and only time in his career, to work on the fresh plaster, developing the theme of the labyrinth, but above all, to clarify the foundations of his own poetics.
The volume presents photographs taken by a young Ugo Mulas, who was commissioned to photograph the work in 1962, accompanied by the written instructions Steinberg left him. The publication is a previously unpublished testimony to the collaboration between Saul Steinberg and Ugo Mulas, a dozen rolls of film shot by the photographer with his Asselblad, which nevertheless remained unused. In the meantime, the graffiti deteriorated and the Palazzina Mayer, sold upon the owner’s death, was renovated in 1998 without any regard for the graffiti, which thus disappeared with the debris.