Purchase, 1965 (R2738)
A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials to the Reading Room.
Helen Young, 2002
Nickolas Muray was born February 15, 1892, in Szeged, Hungary. He attended a graphic arts school in Budapest, where he studied lithography, photoengraving, and photography. After earning an International Engraver's Certificate, Muray took a three-year course in color photoengraving in Berlin, where, among other things, he learned to make color filters. At the end of his course he went to work for the publishing company Ullstein.
In 1913, with the threat of war in Europe, Muray sailed to New York City, and was able to find work immediately in Brooklyn as a color printer. He was soon working for Condé Nast as a photoengraver working with color separations and half-tone negatives.
By 1920, Muray had opened a portrait studio at his home in Greenwich Village, while still working at his union job as an engraver. In 1921 he received a commission from
When Muray signed a contract with
In the early 1920s, Muray was introduced by Carl Van Vechten to Miguel Covarrubias, who had come to New York in 1923 on a scholarship from the Mexican government. Covarrubias drew caricatures for
Muray also became friends with some of the other Mexican artists who had found their way to New York City. Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and her husband Diego Rivera (1886-1957) were close friends with Muray; indeed Kahlo and Muray were having an affair when Rivera filed for divorce in 1939. Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991) and his wife, Olga, were in Muray's circle in the 1940s and 1950s. Tamayo, an internationally-known painter, sculptor, and printmaker, was born in Oaxaca, and studied in Mexico City. After 1936 he lived part of the time in New York City, usually staying there in the winters, and then in Mexico City in the summers.
Muray also contributed reviews for
Muray, N. (1978).
Deschin, J. (1965, October). Nickolas Muray.
The collection comprises 102 pieces of artwork assembled by Nickolas Muray. Ninety of the works are by Muray's close friend Miguel Covarrubias; the remainder of the collection is made up of important works by Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, and several other Mexican artists. The collection is organized into two series: I. Works by Miguel Covarrubias, and II. Works by Other Artists.
Covarrubias' works in the Muray Collection reflect his output as an artist, caricaturist, book illustrator, and ballet set designer. The Works by Miguel Covarrubias are subdivided into three subseries: A. Book Illustrations, B. Magazine Illustrations, and C. Other Works. In the following list, titles of Covarrubias' works appearing in quotation marks were taken from the published works.
Subseries A. includes numerous drawings and paintings created to illustrate the following books: Bernal Diaz del Castillo's
The Magazine Illustrations, which include many celebrity caricatures done for
Series II., Works by Other Artists, includes two oil paintings and one drawing by Muray's friend and lover, Frida Kahlo:
The Ransom Center's Art Collection has a number of other works by Miguel Covarrubias:
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Collection: three caricatures of Alfred Knopf, Blanche Knopf, and Joseph Hergesheimer, and a set of reproductions of Covarrubias' Pacific House mural maps at the Golden Gate International Exposition;
Spud Johnson Collection: a caricature of Carl Van Vechten;
Thomas Mabry Cranfill Collection: a drawing of a Tehuantepec Indian;
George Macy Companies, Inc. Collection: 33 drawings, a group of preliminary design materials for the 1948 Limited Editions Club edition of
Edward Larocque Tinker Collection: a portfolio with a set of reproductions of the Pacific House mural maps, with other materials laid in, including Covarrubias'
The Art Collection also has works by Frida Kahlo's husband, Diego Rivera, in the Diego Rivera Collection (a group of eight works), and the Carlton Lake Art Collection (a portrait drawing by Rivera).
Elsewhere in the Ransom Center, the Manuscripts Collection has three collections with Diego Rivera related items: Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantaganet Hastings [Jack Hastings] Collection; Kenneth and Emma-Stina Prescott Collection of Ben Shahn; Nicola Sacco Collection. The Photography Collection holds a small group of photographs by Muray.