The Bone

In his search for Mexican identity, Covarrubias investigated different aspects of his country’s culture. He wrote the books Mexico South: "The Isthmus of Tehuantepec" (1946) and "Indian Art of Mexico and Central America" (1957). Despite his interest in the vernacular, Covarrubias was independent and cosmopolitan, an attitude reinforced by the periods he lived in New York, where he gained acclaim for his ability to bring together folk and high culture, and by his long stays in Bali with his wife, Rosa Rolanda (in 1937, he even wrote
a fairly anthropological book titled La isla de Bali). “Covarrubias was like a traveler in the nineteenth-century European ethnology tradition,” wrote art historian Rita Eder. “That, along with his innate talents, turned him into a great observer of form. His primary mis- sion was to find affinities in aesthetics and lifestyles, drawing and rendering objects and scenes from China, India, Melanesia, Polynesia, and the stretch that spans from Alaska to Tierra de Fuego to capture diversity of expression and connect ancient traditions to the surviving objects and designs of Native peoples.” It is in those terms that his works on the daily life and customs of Mexican provinces can be read. The 1940 "El hueso" uses a classic and modern language to represent a sole and elaborately adorned man with Indigenous features. Seated, he waits in what appears to be the gallery of a house. The title gives us a hint of what is going on: “Grabbing a bone” is an expression in Mexico that means to get a job in a public office thanks to political or personal favoritism. Another version of the work, titled "El hueso" or "Maestro rural" [Rural Teacher], was produced the same year. A part of the MUNAL Collection, that version shows a bone on the ground next to the figure.