Covarrubias, Miguel << KOH vuh ROO bee uhs, mee GEHL >> (1904-1957), a Mexican artist and author, became internationally known for his caricatures of famous persons. His paintings revealed a keen appreciation of the characteristics of peoples of various lands, and are documents in ethnology and anthropology, as well as in art. His map murals of Pacific regions also are famous. Covarrubias’s writings include Negro Drawings (1927), The Island of Bali (1937), Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec (1946), and The Indigenous Art of Mexico and Central America (1957).
Covarrubias was born on Nov. 22, 1904, in Mexico City. He was largely self-taught as an artist. Covarrubias lived in New York City from 1923 to 1942. There he contributed illustrations to the magazines Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. He also wrote The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans (1925), a witty chronicle of famous people of his day. Covarrubias died on Feb. 4, 1957.
