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 The Mexican, Miguel Covarrubias and his very beautiful wife,
Rose, who drove several noted expatriates of the time to near madness, arrived in Bali
1930 for the first time for a short visit after seeing the photo book of Gregor Krauser.
Born in the Bohemian section of Mexico City, Covarrubias had dropped out of high school
after accidentally cracking the skull of teacher in a fit of anger. In New York his talent
quickly propelled him to become one of the stars of the social scene there and friend to
the rich and famous. Covarrubias was a good friend of the most important Mexican painter
of this century, Diego Riviera who was married to the now much acclaimed Frida Kahlo. Both
were strongly influenced by the resurgence of interest in pre-Columbian and folk art which
animated the Mexican art scene before the war. Returning to Bali on a grant from the
Guggenheim Foundation in 1933, Covarrubias worked in Bali several years putting together
his much acclaimed and still the best general book on Bali, The Island of Bali first
printed in 1937. The book was a best seller causing a fit of Baliomania in New York and
else where for years.Much influenced by the ancient cultures and spirit of his own nation, one could almost say that it required a man from a non European consciousness to realise this book and the beautiful drawings and aquarels that he made to illustrate it. While good friends with Walter Spies, Covarubbias, like many others at the time, preferred to stay in the much more of a impoverished backwater than a cultural capital. Covarrubia’s Balinese oeuvre is unique and greatly indebted to his Mexican roots, Riviera and the graphic and illustrative arts of his era. Many would call him more of an illustrator than painter for he worked for many magazines and to this day is renown for his Art Deco illustrations for the covers of Vanity Fair.
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