Diario las Américas Newspaper, May 5, 1957, Page 24

By JOS GOMEZ-SICRE ESE SN ET Reprinted from AMERICAS monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portu- guese. esate MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS’ death in February marked the close of an era for caricature and illustra- tion in Latin America. Covarrubias, born in México Ci- ty in 1904, achieved his fame in the 1920’s as a result of the publici- ty given the Mexican mural-paint- ing movement at that time. Cova- rrubias stylized and simplified the subject matter.of Mexican painting and made it digestible for the maj- ority of the public. Possessing a real sense of decoration, in his pleasant style he created typical characters that took over the pages of numerous illustrated magazines and implanted the Mexican theme in a lesser vein, perhaps more at- tractive at first sight than that em- ployed by the painters among his compatriots, and not without re- finement. In caricature, Covarrubias fol- lowed the same tendency as in his illustrations. He abominated the cruel caricature, the sarcastic com- mentary, the deep and penetrating line of the Mexican tradition that began with the illustrator José Gua- dalupe Posada, acquired stature in the work of the muralist José Cle- ment Orozeo, and today finds a leg- < 2 , itimate successor in the draftsman ‘ José Luis Cuevas. A few years ago Covarrubias expressed his views on caricature in general. “I don’t think,” he said, “that it has to be deformation or ridiculous exag- geration of the subject’s facial de- fects to be caricature. That is the easiest and commonest technique, and is within reach of the simplest minds.” With this idea dominating his humorous, work, Covarrubias treated the people he caricatured charitably and elegantly rather than profoundly and penetrating- ly. He ably synthesized their feat- ures, picturing them instead of pre- senting a conception or an anayl- sis. Baris gedé, stately Balimese war dance. painting and studying island produced classic book, Island of Bali, that established his reputation as an anthropoligist. Covarrubias’ months of In painting, he could not over- come the limitations caricature and illustration imposed; his reputation therefore, was based on his work in those two fields. From 1923 on, = ‘ ‘ Sa when Vanity Fair gave him its ae- Covarrubias redrawing of central motif of Sioux or Arapaho painted colade in the United States, Co- elkskin, from The Eagle, the Jaguar, and the Serpent, in which yarrybias produced a version of he attempted ‘a hypothesis of history of all Hemisphere Indian at, Copyright 1954 by Miguel Covarrubias, 3 Vanity Fair, ends as Harlow says: Huge stone head at La Vega ruins, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Msxico. Covarrubias called La Venta art “unique... noble and sensual” Copyright 1946 by Alfred A. Kuopf, Inc. “Impossible Interview” between Freud and mevie queen Jean Harlow, one of series Covarrubias wrote and drew for magazine “We can never be more thaa just good Freuds”, México that was soon popularly ac- cepted. He did more to advertise the picturesque features of his country than ay other Mexicaa artist. Soon everyone knew his cari- catures, his Tehuantepec women, and his dancers, and every publica- tion had to have them, even calen- dars that had to do with México or, as often happened, with the rest of Latin America. Because of the exotic touch he gave to Mexicaa themes, little by little he received commissions to deal with other things. In 1935 came his book on the island of Bali; in 1939 his fam- ous murals for the Golden Gate In- ternational . Exposition in Sana Francisco, now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Life commissioned him to do a four-page color spread on the original 1944 production of Caw men Jones. As a result of his journeys through Asia, Africa, and the is lands of the Pacific, the artist im Covarrubias yielded to other im terests. Bit by bit he began to give his excursions a scientifie touch, and he became an ethnographie specialist on certain cultural areag