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Lot Essay
Mexican painter, caricaturist, illustrator, ethnologist and art historian, Miguel Covarrubias is internationally recognized today as a key participant in the cultural exchange between his native Mexico and the United States post-World War I. After graduating from the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria at the age of 14, Covarrubias started producing caricatures and illustrations for texts and training materials published by the Mexican Ministry of Public Education. In 1924, at the age of 19, he moved to New York City armed with a grant from the Mexican government, and soon after was drawing for several top magazines. His style became highly influential in America, especially in the 1920s and 1930s, and his artwork and caricatures of politicians and artists were featured on the covers of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.
Towards the end of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s Miguel Covarrubias and his wife Rosa travelled constantly to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca. These journeys aimed to produce an ethnological and historical account of the cultural diversity of the region. The result was Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec (A. Knopf, 1946). Concentrating on his broad interests in archaeology, ethnography, and history, Covarrubias portrayed the Zapotecs of the Isthmus as a dynamic and independent society, proud of its cultural heritage.
In Mexico South, Covarrubias' writing is complemented by beautiful reproductions of ethnographic paintings of its inhabitants and their material culture. Juchitecas dancing the són1 recreates a typical scene of the Vela, the most significant communal celebration among the Zapotecs of the Isthmus. The Velas are nocturnal celebrations held in huge, public areas where large numbers of people gather to pay homage to their patron saints, agricultural produce, or skilled labor specialists such as fishermen or potters. The etiquette of the occasion is formal dress, and the women are the main protagonists. They prepare the food, attend to the guests, and formally kick off the celebration by dancing their native sones, accompanied by musicians. According to Covarrubias, the Velas is the space where the women show off their accumulated wealth, visible in the quality and the level of ornamentation of their colorful and elegant dresses complemented by gold necklaces and earrings made of ancient coins.
The main protagonists of this painting are two female juchitecas (natives from Juchitán) who while dancing, spread their ruffled skirts, showing off designs and the width of their fabrics. This gesture is the central motif of the composition. Covarrubias wanted to show the pride of the women in being able to wear such elaborate garments with sixteen-inch ruffles, much longer than those of their neighbors of Tehuantepec. These ruffles that border the skirts are made of starched lace, finely pleated, and made by hand. The woman on the left is wearing a black velvet gala dress with red, pink and green embroidered floral motifs. The woman on the right is wearing a red satin dress ornamented with new elaborate geometrical designs as was the fashion of the time. Covarrubias rigorously recorded these new geometrical patterns in Mexico South, noticing how Zapotec females were inventive and completely fashion-conscious, like women in big Western cities. By presenting these women and their dresses side by side, Covarrubias seems to appeal to the great debate between the figurative (the floral motif) and the abstract (the geometric motif). This debate continues within Zapotec textile design and both styles remain equally popular. Covarrubias also understood that the Zapotec dress (also known as the Tehuana dress, famously worn by Frida Kahlo) was the result of a long history of interaction with the global market, arriving in New Spain via the trade route known as the Manila Galleon. In the New Spain period, silk from the east, and towards the end of the 19th century, cotton imported from Manchester, was used by the Indigenous women of the region. What became later known as the Zapotec style, started during the second half of the 19th century when Tehuantepec was a cosmopolitan center. The tehuana dress is the convergence of old Victorian and French night dresses with the huipil, a sleeveless loose-fitting tunic which was shortened to give prominence to the skirt. The result is a unique style which to this day remains a source of pride and affirmation of Zapotec identity.
Anahí Luna
1 the word "son" is accented here to respect the spelling used by Covarrubias in his original publication.
Towards the end of the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s Miguel Covarrubias and his wife Rosa travelled constantly to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in the Mexican states of Veracruz and Oaxaca. These journeys aimed to produce an ethnological and historical account of the cultural diversity of the region. The result was Mexico South: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec (A. Knopf, 1946). Concentrating on his broad interests in archaeology, ethnography, and history, Covarrubias portrayed the Zapotecs of the Isthmus as a dynamic and independent society, proud of its cultural heritage.
In Mexico South, Covarrubias' writing is complemented by beautiful reproductions of ethnographic paintings of its inhabitants and their material culture. Juchitecas dancing the són1 recreates a typical scene of the Vela, the most significant communal celebration among the Zapotecs of the Isthmus. The Velas are nocturnal celebrations held in huge, public areas where large numbers of people gather to pay homage to their patron saints, agricultural produce, or skilled labor specialists such as fishermen or potters. The etiquette of the occasion is formal dress, and the women are the main protagonists. They prepare the food, attend to the guests, and formally kick off the celebration by dancing their native sones, accompanied by musicians. According to Covarrubias, the Velas is the space where the women show off their accumulated wealth, visible in the quality and the level of ornamentation of their colorful and elegant dresses complemented by gold necklaces and earrings made of ancient coins.
The main protagonists of this painting are two female juchitecas (natives from Juchitán) who while dancing, spread their ruffled skirts, showing off designs and the width of their fabrics. This gesture is the central motif of the composition. Covarrubias wanted to show the pride of the women in being able to wear such elaborate garments with sixteen-inch ruffles, much longer than those of their neighbors of Tehuantepec. These ruffles that border the skirts are made of starched lace, finely pleated, and made by hand. The woman on the left is wearing a black velvet gala dress with red, pink and green embroidered floral motifs. The woman on the right is wearing a red satin dress ornamented with new elaborate geometrical designs as was the fashion of the time. Covarrubias rigorously recorded these new geometrical patterns in Mexico South, noticing how Zapotec females were inventive and completely fashion-conscious, like women in big Western cities. By presenting these women and their dresses side by side, Covarrubias seems to appeal to the great debate between the figurative (the floral motif) and the abstract (the geometric motif). This debate continues within Zapotec textile design and both styles remain equally popular. Covarrubias also understood that the Zapotec dress (also known as the Tehuana dress, famously worn by Frida Kahlo) was the result of a long history of interaction with the global market, arriving in New Spain via the trade route known as the Manila Galleon. In the New Spain period, silk from the east, and towards the end of the 19th century, cotton imported from Manchester, was used by the Indigenous women of the region. What became later known as the Zapotec style, started during the second half of the 19th century when Tehuantepec was a cosmopolitan center. The tehuana dress is the convergence of old Victorian and French night dresses with the huipil, a sleeveless loose-fitting tunic which was shortened to give prominence to the skirt. The result is a unique style which to this day remains a source of pride and affirmation of Zapotec identity.
Anahí Luna
1 the word "son" is accented here to respect the spelling used by Covarrubias in his original publication.