Sunday, December 14, 2014

Larry's Vault: Miguel Covarrubias 1948


This installment of the Vault features one of my all time favorites: Miguel Covarrubias--caricaturist, illustrator, muralist, theatre set designer, author and ethnographer.

In the 1920’s and 30’s he was a major contributor of caricatures to New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Fortune and Time .  He traveled the world over and wrote studies of the art and culture of Mexico, Central America, Alaska and Bali. He painted murals for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco and designed the sets for Josephine Baker’s La Revue Negre in Paris. It’s hard to believe he accomplished so much in just 53 short years. He died in 1957.


Here is a feature on Covarrubias by renowned illustrator Henry C.Pitz from the January 1948 edition of American Artist magazine. (For easier reading click on images to enlarge).









Postscript:

One of Covarrubias' books:


And some more of his lovely line work.




2 comments:

  1. Hi Larry,
    This will come out of nowhere, but I'm hoping you can help me.
    I'm David Gerstein, a Disney comics editor working with Fantagraphics Books on a series of Mickey Mouse newspaper strip books. This is the complete, unedited Mickey from the 1930s and 40s, mostly the work of Floyd Gottfredson.
    But for awhile in 1942, Gottfredson brought in Dick Shaw to script the strip for him. I've got a one-page biography of Shaw—meant for the volume I'm assembling now—that I'd like to check for accuracy and omissions with a real Shaw expert.
    Elsewhere online, I've learned that you may be that expert; having helped the Shaw family organize Dick's papers and archival items eight years ago or so.
    Might you be willing to look at this article and help me proof it in the next couple days? If so, please contact me at ramapith [at] gmail [dot] com.
    I'm about to contact the Shaw family myself to ask whether they have any family photos they might let me use, and/or sketches by Shaw from his Disney days or after.
    Please drop me a line if you can!
    Best, David

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello David,

    Interesting project. I'll contact you.

    -Larry

    ReplyDelete