Bidspirit auction | MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS ATTR.: JAZZ SCENE

MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS ATTR.: JAZZ SCENE - Miguel Covarrubias (Mexican, 1904-1957) attributed: Jazz Scene, oil on two-ply illustration board, signed bottom right, unframed. Miguel Covarrubias was a Mexican artist and illustrator, best known for his satirical representations of Hollywood's elite and his commercial depictions of jazz clubs during the Harlem Renaissance. Emigrating to the United States in 1924, speaking very little English, his talent as an illustrator garnered him friendship with the Mexican poet Jose Juan Tablada and New York Times photographer Carl Van Vechten, who in turn introduced him to some of the leading artistic minds of the day. He became involved with the Harlem Renaissance, befriending and illustrating for such luminaries as Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Throughout his career he would illustrate for a variety of elite publications, including the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, where he became one of the magazine's premier caricaturists.