"THE NEW YORKER" the view from 9th Ave.

"THE NEW YORKER", Saul Steinberg, 1976

Think back to New York in the 1970's, it was perhaps one of the grittiest and rough times for the city. There had been the flight to the suburbs, inflation was high, and inner city NYC was on the decline. Saul Steinberg ever seeing the big picture as well as the situation for the average person made an image to distill the world view of the average New Yorker at the time. But in creating this drawing he also made a lens that could be movable to any point on the globe and render the local person's view of the world just as effectively. In essence, he made a kind of map projection that could capture what matter to a local, and omit the rest. It's a brilliant tool to capturing a bit of the local psychology as well as geography. This one image would accidentally start a revolution of other artists and devotees of Steinberg's to try their hand at making their own "View of the World". 
   In his depiction there is one small piece of the world that has correct Euclidean relationships of size and proximity, where it all makes sense. On his map it's down around 9th and 10th Avenue, where an average person could live. But once you leave that home of reasonability and logic, things go astray. Distance and priority have a different values. Looking west across the nation which is flat as a table top, with a few rocks and features scattered about, flanked by Canada and Mexico. Beyond the west coast which is just a straight edge along the Pacific Ocean, only one city is noted: Los Angeles. Floating amorphous lumps beyond the Pacific note China, Japan and Russia. In the foreground we see the rougher streets of the city with some broken down old cars, one with the hood up... this is a feature that other mapmakers will repeat on their maps, following their master's model. 
   This is one of the 25,000 posters that The New Yorker printed in 1976 and sold out with so much demand. We've encountered these over the years, and all the originals we've had have all been offset a bit on the paper. The left hand margin is wide and the right hand is non-existent. We have always believed this was the fault of the printer, maybe the rush was on to get these done.  Condition is very good, with a minor tear in the left margin, some minor soiling and dings to the edges. 
   A comical piece of 20th century cartography that became the summit to all the regionalist maps that proceeded it.