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Lot Essay
Miguel Covarrubias was a man of many talents - the 20th century caricaturist, illustrator, painter and writer is widely regarded as Mexico's 'Renaissance Man', whose accomplishments in the visual arts realm through his book, The Island of Bali and his many paintings give both art connoisseurs and lay-people alike an invaluable look into the cultural and anthropological aspects of Bali. In the early 1930s, Covarrubias and his wife made two trips to Bali, one on their honeymoon, and one subsequent trip a few years later. Despite spending only twenty months on the island, Covarrubias was so inspired that he created an impressive oeuvre of paintings on the island, as well as a 400-page book, The Island of Bali, lauded as a classic.
Covarrubias had expressed many times his enchantment with the women of Bali, calling them "stately and graceful as goddesses, tawny-skinned with dark glowing eyes, proud mouths, erect bearing", and his paintings of Balinese women performing their daily tasks are without question some of the greatest insights that one can have of Balinese culture in the 1930s.
The Rice Granary (Lot 185) is a particularly excellent example of the above from Covarrubias' time in Bali, and gives the viewer potent look into the lives of Balinese women, and their relationship with each other. Covarrubias produced at least four non-editioned versions of The Rice Granary, the first of which was illustrated in his book, Island of Bali. The present lot is the watercolour and charcoal version. These are in addition to lithographic prints produced. The two girls in the present version are clad in blue and magenta, and make the present version arguably the most outstanding amongst the four in terms of colours.
These paintings are set in unremarkable locations, places where he regularly found these women - the temple, for instance, performing ordinary actions - and yet, Covarrubias manages to bring about a stunning sense of the extraordinary in the benign, drawing the viewer into the picture, to the focused images of the women, brightly dressed against their drab surroundings.
Covarrubias had expressed many times his enchantment with the women of Bali, calling them "stately and graceful as goddesses, tawny-skinned with dark glowing eyes, proud mouths, erect bearing", and his paintings of Balinese women performing their daily tasks are without question some of the greatest insights that one can have of Balinese culture in the 1930s.
The Rice Granary (Lot 185) is a particularly excellent example of the above from Covarrubias' time in Bali, and gives the viewer potent look into the lives of Balinese women, and their relationship with each other. Covarrubias produced at least four non-editioned versions of The Rice Granary, the first of which was illustrated in his book, Island of Bali. The present lot is the watercolour and charcoal version. These are in addition to lithographic prints produced. The two girls in the present version are clad in blue and magenta, and make the present version arguably the most outstanding amongst the four in terms of colours.
These paintings are set in unremarkable locations, places where he regularly found these women - the temple, for instance, performing ordinary actions - and yet, Covarrubias manages to bring about a stunning sense of the extraordinary in the benign, drawing the viewer into the picture, to the focused images of the women, brightly dressed against their drab surroundings.