From there where Covarrubias went, he carried with him a pencil and sketch pad at the ready to make some paper or something that caught his attention. At night, he loved to go to vaudeville magazines and, later, the cafes where intellectuals and artists from Mexico gathered.
Covarrubias remembers this period, a chubby shy boy still sitting in a corner of busy drawing. He was given the affectionate nickname "El Chamaco", "The Kid", a pet name that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Some of the cartoons he made already well known artists such as Diego Rivera or visit the writer, D. H. Lawrence, ended up pinned to the walls of "EL Monote", one of the cafes. Soon he was asked to contribute caricature of Mexico fashion magazines and student publications, including the popular art magazine Zig-Zag.
Al Hirschfeld, who shared a studio with Miguel in the twenties commented, "I know he used to fiddle a lot and draw on tablecloths and menus in restaurants .... In Harlem, he hundreds of drawings in a sketchbook, and when there were no leaves in white, on matchboxes, on the towels, and anything he could find. "
After the publication of Covarrubias first book in 1925, the Prince of Wales and other Americans, his mentor Carl Van Vechten marveled, "I have always regarded as an axiom that a cartoonist should know about it for ten years before sit for the draw ....
Later that year, Van Vechten once again made a similar observation in his novel, firecrackers, which he dedicated to MC. In the book, a character thinks of "a young Mexican boy, Miguel Covarrubias, who created caricatures of celebrities who knew only by sight and name, which exposed the secret of the subject's personality. There was foresight. "
From 1926, Covarrubias began to illustrate books. As he read the text he would start drawing and, in the end, choose the most suitable images. Some of the designs have was repeated up to fifteen times in a patient experimentation to find the right approach and technique.
In 1928, the Valentine Gallery in New York Covarrubias gave his first exhibition. The catalog said "simplification is such an important element in Covarrubias drawings is rarely achieved he starts a picture at the latest after the most summary of thumbnail sketches, but he is ready to draw and redraw until his keen sense of. pictorial rightness is satisfied. the end result is usually deceptively simple. It has a look of the immediate and spontaneous creation. "
Rosa Rolanda Covarrubias married in 1930. For their honeymoon they traveled by boat to China and Bali. Covarrubias threw himself into Balinese life. All he saw was recorded in sketches. The results of his two visits to Bali was his book, Bali island, published in 1937. Many of the topics in the book are illustrated by a summary sketches.
Covarrubias became a passionate anthropological researcher. He immersed himself in the arts and culture of primitive cultures. His way of sorting the ideas and way of understanding a culture was through the use of the drawing. As a teacher, his students remember him with the always present pens in his pocket and a notebook to make sketches. In the classroom to illustrate what he described, Covarrubias would simply turn to the blackboard and draw. "It goes something like this ..."
group of Bali and Chinese sketches in this exhibition performed by Miguel Covarrubias early thirties is a window on the. creative process of his way to work. Wherever he was, he saw people and events for later use. These sketches show his keen sense of observation and intellectual curiosity and loyalty and artistic understanding of its subjects.
Many of these preliminary drawings were the first step before developing into refined line or lavis or color studies. good examples sketches Bali are the corresponding final works "food Stall", "Every Night's Night Festival "," Brahman Priest or Pendanda "and" Princess and Attendant "(a scene from the Ardja, Balinese Opera). This work can be found in Covarrubias in Bali published by Editions Didier Millet. Chinese sketches, there are several drawings improved for the book of Mark Chadourne China and gouache for the book jacket Albert Ms. Gervais Flowery sense in 1937.
Miguel Covarrubias began his career as a cartoonist and graphic designer. He was working on a cartoon, a book illustration, teaching a class, design a card sets for a ballet, studying a culture or solve an archaeological mystery, he always sketched.
The sketches in this exhibition are examples of how it worked and are works of art in their own right. Rubin of Borbollas said: "Perhaps one of the most profound lessons of Covarrubias was there any aspect, but abstract it may be, knowledge or human nature that surrounds the man who can not have and should not have a graphical interpretation. "
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i) Miguel Covarrubias Caricatures, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington 1985 p.12ii) Ibid. P.20
iii) Hirschfeld Al, Interview with Adriana Williams, New York City, 1985.
iv) Van Vechten, Carl, the examiner, Vol 4, 1923-4, (New York:. Johnson Reprint Company, 1967): 103.
v) Van Vechten, Carl, firecrackers, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1925): 127 -128
vi). Barton, Ralph, Preface Negro Drawings by Miguel Covarrubias, (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1927).
vii) British Encyclopedia Britannica, 2o edition, sv "Caricature"
viii) Valentine Gallery Catalogue :. (New York, 1928)
ix) Romano, Arturo (Mexican archaeologist) :. Interview with Adriana Williams, Mexico, July 1987.
x) Caso, Alfonso, interview with Elena Poniatoska, Novedades, Mexico City, May 1957.
xi) Coe, Michael (American archaeologist) telephone interview with Adriana Williams, November 1991
xii) Rubin of Borbollla, Bibliografica Boletín de Antropología Americana (Mexico City: Instituto de Geografía e historia), p.138.
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