Cartoonist and Writer, Peter Steiner, Exhibits His Paintings

Peter Steiner’s show of recent paintings at the Norfolk Library might be expected from a man of catholic interests and a varied professional background. Steiner, who holds a Ph.D. in German literature, taught the subject for eight years at Dickinson College before leaving, in 1978, to try to become a professional artist. But it was from cartooning, that specialized skill of the outsider looking into society and poking fun at what he sees, that he earned his keep. Steiner’s cartoons for The New Yorker, of course, are famous. But he kept painting, and in 1994 turned to it full time. Except he also started to write. His first novel, a thriller set in the Loire Valley, was published in 2003, two more followed, and a fourth is on the way. Maybe that is why the paintings on exhibition here vary so in quality, focus and consistency of style. The best pictures I think are Steiner’s views of New York City, especially from sites on the High Line, that wondrous new park built along an abandoned, elevated rail bed stretching from Greenwich Village to lower Midtown. The artist is taken with the city buildings closing in spaces, framing views of construction sites, trucks on the street, even the Statue of Liberty seen beyond the end of a street that leads away, between buildings on the left and right, from the High Line. There is a picture of a blocky, limestone-colored building with regular pairs of windows angled across from a larger, reddish building of many more windows. A view of a large truck with another behind it is seen from under and through the low ceiling of a covered walkway protecting pedestrians from construction. A gentle, lovely picture from on the High Line incorporates impressionistic foliage, both green and flowering, on the right behind the protective balustrade. An open construction site is vibrant with Caterpillar yellow trucks and gray and bluish rubbish, all overseen by a yellow building angled to the left. Many of Steiner’s city images involve the angled, tilted planes of buildings juxtaposed against others, not seen straight on but from unexpected positions, not unlike the tilt and angles of many of his cartoons. Tiers of buildings rise in another picture like layers of a vertical cake, all in Fauvist colors. Then there are the three paintings that riff on Matisse interiors: peonies in a vase; bottle, wine cooler and eyeglasses on a small round table with cabriole legs standing on an Oriental carpet against patterned blue wallpaper; a small vase of flowers sitting on a small, square, straight-legged table, again on an Oriental carpet, set near French doors to a deck. They remind you of why Matisse is on nearly everyone’s favorite artists list. A busy composition of the artist’s supplies is too overloaded with objects, too busy for focus. And one painting – a landscape hung near the entrance – is not good. Interestingly, he does not always cover the entire canvas with paint, perhaps a carry over from cartooning, a technique that robs pictures such as this of depth. Yet it is flanked by a study in the tilting rectangles of city buildings and a small picture of grasses on the High Line that are winning. Steiner is always interesting if not always consistent. “Peter Steiner, Recent Works” continues at the Norfolk Library through February. The library is open every day. Call 860-542-5075 or go to www.norfolklibrary.org for hours.