What can one say about a Miguel Covarrubias work of art except that it is a riot of color and form. This complete set (Plates I-VI) of original multi-color lithographs and the accompanying Publisher Pacific House's 10-page, black and white illustrated catalogue, titled Pageant of the Pacific by Miguel Covarrubias is a an artist and anthropologist's pictorial celebration of the Pacific Ocean region, its people, its wildlife and their culture. The lithographs are pictorial maps as well as original decorative art. Covarrubias presents a view of the world as an organic form united by the ocean. Economic activity and human culture are represented figuratively and with toy like symbols, on land and sea, making even oil derricks appear benign. The Pacific Ocean itself is a universe teeming with many forms of life. The many natural and hand made products of this world are used by Covarrubias in his art as pictorial elements. A burlap sack held aloft by two strong, dark hands presents the bounty of the region and serves in one map as its cartouche. In another, the title block is a seashell. A watchful Sun, capable of generating both the blessings of rainbows and the peril of lightning keeps a watchful eye over the Pacific Ocean and the parade of figures on land. Each lithograph is a tour of islands, seashore, and ancient cultures. The viewer has a bird's eye view of this pageant in the prints.
This Covarrubias artwork was originally commissioned by Pacific House for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition at an architectural scale to be designed and installed by Covarrubias at the Pacific House exhibition hall as a set of murals. Mexican born Covarrubias (1904-1957) was a prolific artist in many mediums, including painting and theater set design. The accompanying Catalogue discusses both the exhibition hall, the aims of the exhibit and its historically changing context from 1939 to WWII at 1943. The exhibition catalogue was issued with the exhibition and reissued with the lithographs four years later.
What visually dominates Covarrubias' mapping of the land forms of the world is the Pacific Ocean, the corners of each lithograph print rounded to suggest a three dimensional global form. The scope of the area mapped includes Asia, Australia, Polynesia, North America and South America. The imagery of these plates reaches back to prehistoric times, as in Plate III that represents native art forms -and possible native ocean charts - and to pre-industrial times. Plate V, for example is a display of native homes, and examples include homes of native peoples of North America. The center focal point of each map varies. The animate creation and the natural world are often labeled, suggesting the human appreciation of the world as pure consumption. Many of the land forms show development of natural resources. Much of the world's beauty represented in these lithographs is sought and brought as a consumable. Or is it otherwise? Perhaps the Pageant of the Pacific is about the riot of life in which we may participate across the vastness of the Pacific Region.
Dimensions: Set of Prints I-VI and Catalogue:
dimensions: 38"W x 25 1/8" H Plates I-IV
dimensions: 25"W x 19"H Plates V and VI
dimensions: 9"W x 11 5/8"H Catalogue