By GUY LAMOLINARA
A display emphasizing the kinship between the art of caricature and portrait photography would seem to make for unlikely, if not impossible, comparisons.
Yet a new exhibition at the Library successfully demonstrates how such seemingly different styles of portraiture are indeed related. "ABOUT FACE: Portraits and Caricatures by Carl Van Vechten and Miguel Covarrubias" is based on LC's collection of the works of these two artists active from the 1920s through and 1950s.
"The original idea was to compare caricatures with photographs to try to show that you can find some close parallels between the two types of portraiture," said Harry Katz, curator of applied and graphic art in the Prints and Photographs Division.
Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was one of the most influential performing arts critics in America prior to World War II. Native Mexican Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1957) came to New York City in 1922 and made his U.S. debut as a caricaturist in Vanity Fair as a result of the intervention of Van Vechten, who had contributed many pieces to the magazine.
About a decade later, Covarrubias influenced his mentor's career by introducing him to the 35mm Leica camera. According to Carol Johnson, assistant curator of photography in the Prints and Photographs Division, "When Covarrubias introduced Van Vechten to the camera, he loved it so much that he practically gave up writing to pursue photography." Because he was a prominent critic, Van Vechten had access to the leading figures in the arts as well as entertainment and sports. He thus was able to photograph many of the most famous people of the time.
In addition to their connections as friends and colleagues, "the results achieved by Covarrubias with pencil and brush and Van Vechten with his Leica reveal strong artistic connections as well," said Mr. Katz. "Covarrubias was known and celebrated for the bold, geometric line and strong contrast of black and white or vivid colors that characterize his drawings. Van Vechten achieved similar results through the use of abstract patterned backdrops, dramatic and exaggerated poses and, often, a direct and penetrating stare."
Covarrubias's images of composer Igor Stravinsky and actors Eva La Gallienne and John Barrymore, published in Vanity Fair in 1924-26, "are among the earliest images of Covarrubias published in the magazine," said Sara Duke, curatorial assistant in the Prints and Photographs Division. "They are striking because of the simplicity of the image as well as the strength of the lines. I think they are among his best work because of their directness."
Covarrubias drew Stravinsky (1882-1971) while he was touring the United States with his newly composed piano concerto. The work was such a success that Vanity Fair &dubbed him one of the "prodigious figures in the world of music."
British-born actress, director and producer Eva La Gallienne (1899-1991) acted mostly in the United States in such productions as "The Swan." Covarrubias drew her swan-like neck for the January 1924 cover of Vanity Fair.
Despite the strong stage tradition in his family, Barrymore (1882-1942) did not become an actor until he was fired from his first job as a newspaper cartoonist. Then, in 1903, his stage career as a great Shakespearean actor of the stage was launched. Covarrubias aptly portrayed the actor's sharp nose and famous eyebrows.
The images of reporter, critic, lecturer, essayist and actor Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943) give exhibition viewers the opportunity to make a direct comparison between the works of Van Vechten and Covarrubias. Both images capture his rather comical face. Van Vechten's photograph shows Woollcott wearing a hat. "Woollcott demanded to have his picture taken with his hat on, and that pleased Van Vechten to no end because he thought that really added to the image. He was really pleased with the photograph," said Ms. Johnson.
Covarrubias exaggerated Woollcott's features, transforming his mouth and nose into a beak, his eyes into the shape of an owl's.
Actress Catherine Cornell (1893-1974) was portrayed by both Van Vechten and Covarrubias. This leading stage actress of the '20s and '30s is best known for her performances as Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet," as Elizabeth in "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" and as the countess in "The Light Is Dark Enough."
Covarrubias drew a delightfully wicked caricature of Cornell (see cover) as the murderess Madeline Carey in "The Dishonored Lady," whereas Van Vechten's haunting and strikingly lit photograph employs a device he frequently used: matching some aspect of the subject's character or setting with the photo's background. Here, he shows Cornell holding lilies with a flowered fabric background. According to Ms. Johnson, Van Vechten had hundreds of fabric rolls in his studio for just this purpose. "This was his way of personalizing the photos," she said.
The photographer personalized his photo of Orson Welles (1915-1985) with a backdrop of film reels on fabric. The photo was shot in 1937, four years before Welles made his masterpiece "Citizen Kane." At the time, Welles was primarily known as a radio broadcaster, whose Oct. 30, 1938, broadcast of H.G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds, about an invasion by Martians," had caused panic when Americans heard it, not knowing the account was fictional.
H.G. Wells (1866-1946) had achieved worldwide fame for The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. But he was also the author of about 80 other books, including the nonfiction Outline of History. Covarrubias depicted his subject as a seer, "full of facts and ready to give himself offhand the answer to practically everything." Wells accurately predicted in 1914 the invention of the atomic bomb and denounced Hitler, then a political upstart, during the late 1920s.
Another writer, Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), was the subject of one of Covarrubias's most wry caricatures. "Covarrubias portrayed him as a bricklayer laboring over his work the same way a writer might labor over a novel," said Ms. Duke. The image was drawn in 1928, shortly after Dreiser's two volume epic, An American Tragedy," had been published. As "President of the American Fiction and Construction Company," this depiction of the writer is anything but complimentary. The style of the drawing also shows how Covarrubias was increasingly influenced by modern art.
A more striking example of this influence can be seen in the cubist caricature of jazz musician Paul Whiteman (1891-1967). "The drawing shows the diversity of Covarrubias and how he used modern art to dramatic effect," said Mr. Katz. Whiteman is credited with introducing "symphonic jazz" to the world by conducting, among other works, George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The viola in the drawing points to Whiteman's training as a classical musician. He once said, "You'll never learn to bounce in jazz if you don't know your Bach and Beethoven."
The poise of singer Marian Anderson (1902-1993) is remarkable considering the circumstances under which her photo was taken. "Marian Anderson was performing in Hartford, Conn., the day this photo was taken," said Ms. Johnson. "It was a snowy January day, and her train arrived quite late in New York -- well after midnight. Van Vechten had just about given up on her when she arrived, bringing the costume he had asked her to wear."
One of the world's great contraltos, Anderson performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow2 her to perform in Constitution Hall because of her color. After hearing her sing in Salzburg, Austria, the composer Arturo Toscanini said, "A voice like yours is heard only once in a hundred years."
The earliest Van Vechten portrait in the exhibition is that of artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). "The framing of the photo is very odd," said Ms. Johnson. "You wonder whether Van Vechten was still learning how to use the camera."
Although Covarrubias and Van Vechten drew mostly on prominent figures from entertainment and the arts, they also used sports figures as subjects. Van Vechten's photo of prizefighter Joe Louis (1914-1981) is unusual because it was taken in a natural setting but is characteristic in Van Vechten's dramatic use of light. Covarrubias's interpretation of the boxer appeared in Vanity Fair in its "Impossible Interview" series, to which he frequently contributed. The boxer is shown being interviewed by Hailie Selassie after the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia by Italian Fascist Benito Mussolini. The image is fitting, because Louis had just defeated Italian boxer Primo Carnera. Louis advises the Ethiopian emperor on how to defeat the Italians, who had overrun his country and forced him into exile. The emperor returned to power in 1941 with the aid of the British.
The exhibition makes clear the interest of Van Vechten and Covarrubias in the African American community not only by the number of black Americans portrayed but also by the sensitivity of the portraiture. During the 1920s, the artists spent much time walking the streets of Harlem, visiting the area's clubs, to which Van Vechten was already a frequent visitor. Beginning in 1925, Vanity Fair published Covarrubias's sketches of the ordinary people he met there.
"Van Vechten and Covarrubias didn't merely portray the Harlem Renaissance and the African-American community, they also participated in it," said Ms. Duke. "They permitted whites to learn more about African Americans and conveyed a great love for what they saw."
Van Vechten, whose works have been widely exhibited and often published in books and magazines (he refused to allow his photos to appear in newspapers because of the poor reproduction quality), felt that his collection of photos, letters and other ephemera should be available for scholarly study. The Library acquired its collection of 1,400 photos from Van Vechten's longtime photographic assistant, Saul Mariber in 1964. Van Vechten continued to write and take photos until his death in 1946.
Covarrubias eventually looked elsewhere for artistic fulfillment. After winning a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930, he went to Bali with his wife, with plans to write a book. Vanity Fair published his Bali paintings. He came to spend more time on anthropological studies and less on caricature. In 1937 he published The Island of Bali and divided his time between New York, Bali and his native Mexico, where he studied its culture. He died of blood poisoning in Mexico City at age 53.
"ABOUT FACE: Portraits and Caricatures by Carl Van Vechten and Miguel Covarrubias" is on view in the Oval Gallery, sixth floor, Madison Building, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m., through Aug. 6. The exhibition is made possible by the Caroline and Erwin Swann Fund.