A cotton shirt seems an uncharacteristic medium for Steinberg, who is associated first and foremost with works on paper, but themes of costume and identity played an important role in his work from the very beginning. In addition to his famous series of paper-bag masks---quickly made party accessories that became important props in the theatre of the artist's social life---Steinberg turned his attention to costume over and over again during his career. Military uniforms, tourist garb, fur coats, business suits: all serve as carefully observed and slightly caricatured bearers of social meaning in Steinberg's drawings.

So it comes as no great surprise that the artist occasionally turned his attention to actual clothing. Around 1970, Steinberg was increasingly concerned with the military build-up in Vietnam, and his work took a darker turn. In a work that may reflect his concerns about the dehumanizing effects of the war on society, here he conjures a military uniform out of an ordinary cotton shirt. A civilian object is transformed into a military one, just as young draftees are turned into soldiers. Yet the pattern made by Steinberg’s trademark rubber stamps hints at a mania, conveying a sense that the maker was barely in control of the process of transformation. In making a uniform, as in making an army, a process that was supposed to be orderly and rule-bound was spinning out of control.

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