Sam Steinberg

Who is Sam Steinberg?

Sam Steinberg was an American outsider art painter from The Bronx, New York, called the "unofficial artist-in-residence" at Columbia University by Peter Frank. His work was "shown" exclusively on the Columbia campus, and his style was one of the first identified as "outsider," an approach coined by art critic Roger Cardinal c. 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 1930s, he and his mother started visiting Columbia daily to sell chocolate bars.

Signed with his distinctive cursive signature, "Sam S.," Steinberg spontaneously began showing and selling original paintings in 1967. He purchased illustration boards and paints from local stationery stores; eventually shifting to permanent magic marker pens. His subjects ranged from animals to popular culture figures like Santa Claus and Elvis Presley, but Steinberg's favorite muses were most certainly his interpretations of cats and "boids." After riding three New York City Subway trains to arrive at Columbia, he was usually carrying three or fresh paintings, which, during the 1970s sold for $2.50.