Miguel Covarrubias, Mexican painter and writer, Mexico City, 1904 – Mexico City, 1957

 

THE TREE OF MODERN ART—PLANTED 60 YEARS AGO
Executed in 1933.

First published in the May 1933 issue of Vanity Fair—The Tree of Modern Art, Planted 60 Years Ago is Miguel Covarrubias’ most celebrated drawing. A didactic image, it was intended to clarify the seemingly complex origins, inner connections and permutations of modern art. Even when proclaiming itself as the herald of “so-called Modern Art,” the magazine acknowledged that many readers still struggled “in the dark concerning this movement—how it started, from what sources it sprang, or the identity of the masters who gave it stability and renown. (Vanity Fair, May, 1933, p. 37)

 

(Daumier is the second root on the left in this impressive tree of Modern Art)