Miguel Covarrubias

years ago when I was in SF for one of Otto's first tiki art shows (Shag, Bosko, and me) We went to the terminal to see the maps in person. Ooohhhh, they're amazing and HUGE. Somewhere on the tiki news web site is a picture of Otto and myself infront one of the maps. Any way my original thought was, Maybe they could be aquired for Polynesia Americana in a few years, if they are still sitting in storage somewhere. Dawn

Anybody seen this book yet, "Covarrubias and Bali"?

http://www.amazon.com/s/103-5093076-1244660?ie=UTF8&keywords=Covarrubias%20and%20Bali&tag=tikiroadtrip-20&Go.x=0&index=blended&Go=Go&Go.y=0&link%5Fcode=qs

Looks intriguing, but I haven't been able to check it out in a bookstore yet - anyone want to post a book report?

It's awesome.

Discovered it at the Brand Library in Glendale. It has a marvelous legong dance sequence sketched in graphite; quite extraordinary work.

SOK

The book is outstanding; admittedly I've hardly read any of the text, but the images are wonderful. It roughly breaks into 4 parts - a historical account peppered with photos and illustrations from the trips Miguel Covarrubias took to Bali with his wife Rose in the 30s, an artistic discussion of his Balinese art, a rich section of 40+ pages of full color images of his sketches and paintings from Bali, and then a set of appendices including more sketches, plus field notes and also some photos that Rose took on the trips. The images show the joy he took in both portraiture and caricature. I really like his work, not only in this book but others, so I have some scans...

"The Ardja, Romantic Balinese Opera"

"The Beach in Sanur"

"Kneeling Legong Dancer with Headdress"

"Bathing in the River"

These last two are from a different book...

This is one of the illustrations that bigbro referred to earlier, from Melville's "Typee", 1935.

At his easel, photo taken by Nickolas Muray.

-Randy

Aloha amigos!
A book I bought in Mexico D.F.

Covarrubias Esplendor del Pacifico

Z

Another great book:

Miguel Covarrubias 4 miradas 4 visions.

Z

Book title: Covarrubias
Author: Adriana Williams.
Publisher: Fondo de Cultura Economica. 1999 Mexico D.F. (2000 books were printed)

A great book biography about Miguel "el chamaco" (kid) Covarrubias the amazing life of a Mexican genius. The book, took 15 years for her biographer to write. Adriana Williams was born in the U.S. with Mexican roots. He died too early. He did everything before and better than anyone. And I am not exaggerating, Even before Picasso and Heyerdahl. For me, he is THE Tiki prophet... I like Covarrubias even better than Gaugin. He is one of the few artists who managed to captured the enchantment of Tiki in drawings, paintings and words.

Picture from the collection of Jose "Zeta" Arizaleta

Mahalo for looking.

Z

I wholeheartedly support Zeta's assessment of Covarrubias' stature as an artist and anthropolgist/archeologist. This wonderful biography even shows a picture of him painting the lost "Art Forms of the Pacific Area" mural, you can see it in this thread:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=22512&forum=1

Thanks Bigbrotiki! Covarrubias was a Genius, who knows what he could achieve if he didn't die so young... That's how it goes with true artists sometimes, too fragile, too sensible for this world. In the self portrait of the cover, he paints himself with Olmec characteristics like the mouth, same as the giant Olmec head next to him. The Olmecs, the first of the Mesoamerican cultures, also known as the "mother culture", was discovered by him only. A real collector archaeologist.

Another great book. Elena Poniatowska Miguel Covarrubias Vida y Mundos
A compilation of interviews with people who knew Covarrubias that appeared on a Mexican newspaper right afer his death. In Spanish.

[ Edited by: Zeta 2009-01-14 21:28 ]

He also loved to wear blue clothes. He thought there was something spiritual with that color. Indigo child? Natural Indigo is perhaps the oldest dye known to man. In meditation it is supposed to neutralize another's magic, to stop gossip, lies, or undesirable competition, to balance out karma. Oh, what a guy.:D

Here is a photo of my son DIEGO taken in 1993 :) :

Wish I could read Spanish. I bought this book in 1993 because there were no illustrated books on Covarrubias' work out in English at that point:

Where do I sign up for the Miguel Covarrubias Appreciation Society?
I love Zeta´s vehemence when discussing about Covarrubias.
I´m looking for this book. Does anyone knows if it´s still available?

It´s from Museo Soumaya, in Tizapán, el barrio de Covarrubias.

Zeta, since you are now in México, would you be so kind and…..

From Google's Life Magazine Archives ~

Nice Pics everyone!
Bigbro, where is that Olmec head from ? Why is your son called Diego? (sorry for the personal question)
Naufrago, I will try to get you that book for you, and I'm going to ask you for a favor too, can you get me the Jazz records with a book that came with the El Pais newspaper in Spain? I have from 1 to 15 but I want the whole collection of 35... I guess I could write to the newspaper directly and ask if they still have them but... O.K. Sorry for the ramblings.
Back to our subject of study, I know someone who is selling Covarrubias' Island of Bali book, first edition signed by him and Rosa (his wife and photographer for the book) for 700 US Dollars. Cheap! If anyone is interested, let me know. P.S. I am not making any profit from the deal.

Zeta, no problem. That photo of lil' Diego was taken at the OTHER (than the one that had the Tiki exhibit) Forest Lawn Cemetery in my neighborhood, in Burbank, across from Warner Brothers Studio. The have a great pre-Columbian sculpture garden, with all kinds of reproductions of ancient idols:

http://www.forestlawn.com/Special-Events-And-Facilities/Plaza-Of-Mesoamerican-Heritage.asp

Funny thing is I was working on posting that photo even before you added your post talking about the color blue --and here was D-man, wearing blue! Synchronicity, man!

My son Diego Walker Kirsten is named after the three sources of his heritage: Californian/American/German

Me and my wife then could not find neither an English nor a German name we liked, and since he was the first in our family to be born in California, we chose this classic Spanish-Californian name, which reminded me of two of my heroes:

Diego Rivera (contemporary and friend of Miguel Covarrubias) and ...."Don Diego de la Vega": Zorro's Alter Ego.

Maybe he will become a man equally proficient with his paint brush as with his sword! :)

Good luck to Diego! Diego Velazquez is also one of the all time master painters.
Here is a Children book on Covarrubias.

Un torbellino de curiosidad. A curiosity swirl.

La Isla de Bali. Island of Bali in Spanish. Interesting and fun to read. Beautiful drawings.

4 or 5 years ago, I fell in love with Miguel Covarrubias' paintings and illustrations. I tried over and over to capture a marquesan tiki for our Adrift shirts, but couldn't come close to the magic Miguel's Marquesan tiki did. So, we ended up using his from the Map he illustrated of the Pacific Ocean. Well, here's the shirt:

http://www.adriftclothing.com/men_marquesan.htm

Over the last year I was lucky to make two nice finds at an antique store. One was a complete set of the original Pageant of the Pacific maps ($100) and this really cool, framed, very old, US map by Covarrubias (36" x 24.5", $15):

[ Edited by: Mr. Pupu Pants 2009-02-12 04:11 ]

Wow, never seen that one in the wild! And you mean you got all THIS:

....for a mere 100.- bucks? What a find. Only in Edmonds, WA ! :) Congrats!

Dang, I didn't get that nice cover. I want my money back! :)
I love the style and design work that goes into his stuff. So rich and so much to look at and appreciate.
Definitely one of my favorite artists.

On 2007-01-16 17:45, ikitnrev wrote:
I recently discovered a magaine cover of Easter Island that was painted by Miguel Covarrubias - the man who painted the inside cover map murals in the Book of Tiki.

The magazine is the June 1953 (Vol 35, No. 2) of the Lamp, which was a promotional magazine put out by Standard Oil. This issue (puiblished 5 years before Heyerdahl's 'Aku Aku') featured articles on the need for oil imports, cowboys using helicopters at round-up time, oil tank trucks on the highway, and one titled 'Oil and Faraway Islands' which is about how the standard of living on remote islands is enhanced by the import of oil.

I love the cover for this issue. It was slightly damaged, as some of the cover was stuck to the inside of the "protective" binder, but overall I still think it looks great. I will likely frame this, and place it next to my Covarrubias map hanging in my tiki room.

The inside article featured 4 additional black and white drawings by Covarrubias - one of a giant Napolean figure standing on St. Helena, one of Robinson Crusoe on Mas-a-Tiera in the Juan Fernandez Islands, one of Tristan de Cunha, and this one, of Easter Island - obviously when sheep herding was still a major commodity of the island.

The article lists the population of Easter Island as 740 Polynesians, 30 Chileans, and 40,000-50,000 Merino sheep. The following is one of the pro-oil paragraphs from the article ...

"It takes a jeep, a truck and three motorboats to run this mid-ocean sheep ranch. A Diesel engine furnishes power for the Chilean Navy's radio station on the island, and some of the clapboard and sheet-iron houses in the settlement use kerosene oil. The volume of oil required to meet these needs is of no great importance except to the islanders; but to them, of course, it is indispensable."

My purchase included 12 issues of the Lamp, and it is interesting to read this material from the era when oil was all good and plentiful ... it is almost a pro-petroleum slanted version of National Geographic, with some great drawings, photos and artwork. I have to share this cover photo, from the March 1952 issue. (the inside article is about teaching children how to use and obey traffic signals)

Enjoy!

Vern

[ Edited by: ikitnrev 2007-01-16 18:04 ]

Miguel Covarrubias

Great book! in Spanish and English... 200 pages.
Only 2000 where printed. Who wants one?

Book:
Miguel Covarrubias

In Mexico and San Francisco

Arte Indigena de Mexico y Centroamerica.

Amazing book.
Rare.

!Viva Miguelito!

Mexico 2001

Wow these are all really awesome!

Here is an advertisement for the Container Corporation of America, drawn by Miguel Covarrubias. The caption reads 'No land is strange to U.S. paper packages today.' It appeared in 1944, most likely in Fortune Magazine.

Nice ikitnrev! I bought that same magazine ad on Ebay years ago and the seller never send it to me...

Sunday afternoon in Xochimilco (mural)

Downtown Mexico City

Mini Bio

Cool drawing from el maestro...

On 2009-01-14 21:53, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wish I could read Spanish. I bought this book in 1993 because there were no illustrated books on Covarrubias' work out in English at that point:

I have 4 extra copies of this book... It is really nice with a lot of images, practically impossible to find now, out of print. If anyone is interested in buying or trading, contact me.

PM'ed you Zeta!
:)

On 2009-01-14 21:53, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wish I could read Spanish. I bought this book in 1993 because there were no illustrated books on Covarrubias' work out in English at that point:

The image on the cover is a detail from the mural "A Sunday afternoon in Xochimilco", which hangs in the coffee shop of the hotel Ritz on Avenida Madero in Mexico City's historic center.
Apologies if I'm repeating Zeta's reference/photo of the mural in his previous post. It was behind the bar the last time I saw it - in need of a cleaning.

[ Edited by: Eddy Brazil 2009-06-12 12:59 ]

Trade or sell

Benito Juarez by Covarrubias

Hola a todos!
I am about to buy this Lithograph for 1000 dollars it's signed and dedicated to Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez (Famous Mexican actor and director who was a personal friend of Covarrubias and worked with Jodorowsky among many others)

I know that 250 where made... But this one has A/P written in it so I know it is one of the Artist's Proof. Wich makes it 20 or 30% MORE valuable than the limited edition.
How much is it worth?
Gracias!

[ Edited by: Zeta 2009-10-25 16:29 ]

[ Edited by: Zeta 2009-10-25 17:14 ]

JO-le.
I couldn't begin to tell you how much it is worth, Zeta, but I know $1000 is a LOT for a print of anything tiki-related, no?

$1000 for an original Leeteg, yes, but a Covarrubias print?
I don't know...

Then again, I guess maybe it's the old "if it's worth it to YOU" thing.
F

This from the April 25, 1949 issue of LIFE magazine:

On 2009-11-17 19:38, Sabu The Coconut Boy wrote:
This from the April 25, 1949 issue of LIFE magazine:
[

Nice find Sabu.

So that's where the Tiki Shield logo came from for the Clark's Islander and the Polynesian in Washington.

DC

Good call, DC, that first Islander matchbook looks like a one-to-one copy of the one in the map. The master got copied again!

The native girl with the giant stone money above Yap island reminds me of the Yap maiden during my visit to the Munich Anthropology museum some years ago:

I would say definitely the same breasts!

EL PUEBLO DEL SOL

Drawings by Covarrubias

EL PUEBLO DEL JAGUAR

Drawings by Covarrubias

If someone wants an original copy of this video, let me know.

30 Minutes with El Maestro.
The painting on the cover is called "El hueso" which means "The bone" that refers to having a "job" in the government. To get money from the government. That same character, the young politician (notice the mini flag pin he's wearing) also appears in the "Una tarde en Xochimilco" mural posted by me earlier on this thread.
Ah, nothing changes in politics...

From the Spratling Museum in Taxco Mexico.

Miguel Covarrubias (unknown) William Spratling

This thread should have this photo:

Miguel and Rosa in front of the giant "Economy of the Pacific" map at the S.F. Expo.

Has anybody heard anything about the original murals, and their future?

I KNEW something was missing in that picture! Their pet!