Miguel Covarrubias

Acquired directly from the artist

Formerly in the Private Collection of Margo and Eddie Albert

Private Asian Collection

The work is in good condition overall, as is the canvas, which is clear and taut. Examination under ultraviolet light shows a minor general re-touching on the surface. However, this is not visible with the naked eye. Framed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

“Bali, of all lands perhaps the least mechanized and the most civilized, held [Miguel] for months in its marvellous web. Now he has returned, bringing with him admirable objects, the works of artists of earlier civilizations. They form a background for his own work, yet he sees them with the vision of America, transforming them into a new beauty of his own”.

Diego Rivera’s forward to Miguel Covarrubias’ one-man show of thirty-two Balinese works at the Valentine Gallery on 18 January 1932¹.

Throughout its history, Bali has encompassed all the hopes of the nomadic traveller, gifting many stories to those who have journeyed through the lush landscape. But for the artistic soul, the island was not merely a place to visit. Rather it was a destination that cultivated new means of creative expression, with many foreign artists finding sanctuary there. The Mexican caricature artist Miguel Covarrubias was one such figure that saw his three-month visit in 1930 transform into nine-months, that was soon followed by an even lengthier stay one year later. The present painting In Preparation of a Balinese Ceremony was created during this period.

Back in Mexico his first job was drafting maps for the Mexican government's geographical office, but as the work was often tedious he found entertainment sketching caricatures of his colleagues instead. During his time in America the artist was regarded for his drawings of well-known personalities that regularly graced the covers of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and other like publications. In Southeast Asia Covarrubias was respected as a muralist, lithographer and ethnologist. His book “Island of Bali” published in 1936 was a recording of his time abroad. A true Renaissance man, each country ultimately brought out a new talent and skill.

Though printed at the turn of the century, his book's contents including 90 sketches and 120 photographs of Bali continue to be relevant. The author Pearl Buck once said that "there is scarcely a question about Bali which is not answered here... At times it seems a scholar's work rather than an artist's. And then the artist emerges to make us see a line, a colour, a flash, which a scholar would never see"². A further testimony to Covarrubias' keen observation of a world he briefly inhabited many years ago.

As a foreigner who came to New York City in 1923 and then an unknown artist, much of Covarrubias’ early oeuvre revealed his role as acting bystander to a society he was hired to document. American cartoonist Ralph Barton wrote of the artist: “Covarrubias arrived in New York… at a time when we were on the point of exploding with our own importance. He began at once to giggle at us… It has done us good. To be seen so easily by a boy, and by a national of a country that we have been patronizing for a century or two, an outlander and a heathen, it was a bitter pill to swallow”³. The artist soon found fame with his illustrations for Vanity Fair’s “Impossible Interviews”. This would become a 13-year working relationship, with his drawings and portraits cementing themselves into the history of American celebrity culture.

Events within an individual’s life, however, rarely follow a linear trajectory. Such was the destiny of Covarrubias who in 1930 travelled to Bali with his wife for what was meant to be a short holiday. Within America his outsider status provided the artist with a critic’s eye, establishing a certain distance between the subject and viewer. In Bali he found this to be the reverse, for though initially seen as a foreigner, Covarrubias was surprised to find a group of people who shared a similar value system as him.

“He understood everything there was to know about Bali. I have never forgotten the brother from far-away Mexico: dark-skinned Miguel with the laughing brown eyes, who looked every bit as Balinese as the next man dressed in a “kamben” with a flower behind his ear. To us he seemed to have a Balinese soul”, his friend I Gust Alit Oka Degut said⁴.

The painting In Preparation of a Balinese Ceremony is reflective of this world where the artist was invited to share in the intimacies that defined the daily lives of the locals. In contrast with his collection of caricature works, the current painting is absent of such comedic intent. The works depicting Bali may be seen as personal works that celebrate the grace and dignity of the people whom he befriended there. Covarrubias was especially interested in the island’s traditional crafts, including performance arts such as dance and theatre. The illustration from “island of Bali” titled A Make-Up Artist Preparing Dancers for a Performance (Ref. 1) foreshadows the present painting, and may be seen as a work study of what was a favoured subject matter. The painting Make-Up Preparation (Ref. 2) also references this choice theme and compositional layout.

Contrary with other foreigners who sought escapement within the island’s greening foliage and exotic culture, Covarrubias wanted to cast off his role as a tourist abroad, and submerge himself completely within the Balinese community. It was the artist’s friendship with fellow painter Walter Spies, the island’s most famous resident, that allowed Covarrubias the opportunity to familiarize himself with the island on a much more personal level.

“I had admired and cut out reproductions of [Walter Spies’] paintings of Russia [in 1923]… never thinking he would become one of my closest friends”, Covarrubias said. “We roamed [the island together] watching strange ceremonies, enjoying their music, listening to fantastic tales, camping in the wilds of West Bali or on the coral reefs of Sanur”⁵. The artist and his wife soon lived with a local family in a compound, and became acquainted with the daily lives and customs of the people. It was around this time when the artist began to collect stories and create artworks that would later be the foundations for “Island of Bali”.

It may be said that the friendship between the two artists influenced Covarrubias’ chosen aesthetics in the works dedicated to Bali, for  In Preparation of a Balinese Ceremony is reminiscent of Spies’ application of light and shadows as seen in Blick von der höhe (A view from the heights) (Ref. 3). In the present work, the lamp that shines a warm light over the faces creates a sense of expectation of what is to come.  In Preparation of a Balinese Ceremony is a memory as remembered by a man who for a brief time was a part of that world. For Covarrubias the island of Bali “…was one of the few remaining graces [that was] still in existence, possessing the best elements of civilization lost to the mechanical Western world—a world which for him had taken on many aspects of [T. S. Eliot’s] “Wasteland””⁶.

The current work is a faithful rendition of the artist's interaction with the Balinese people.  In Preparation of a Balinese Ceremony may be seen as a window into a living culture, one that Covarrubias feared would be “…doomed to disappear under the merciless onslaught of modern commercialism and standardization”. Thankfully through the eyes of the artist, the artwork defies its pictorial properties, and establishes itself as the age-old tale of rural existence overcoming the throes of modernity.

¹Adriana Williams, Covarrubias, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1994, p. 69.

²Refer to 1, p. 85.

³. Adriana Williams, "Miguel Covarrubias Captures Celebrity Culture", Americas, Jun/July 2007 Vol. 59 No. 4, p. 39.

⁴Refer to 1, p. 63.

⁵. Refer to 1, p. 66.

⁶Refer to 1, p. 68.

⁷Miguel Covarrubias, Island of Bali, Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd, Singapore, 2008, p. xxv.