Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Art Links Gallery

Art Links Gallery - Rivera, Diego (1886-1957)

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Rivera, Diego (1886-1957)

Mexican painter who produced murals on social themes, and who ranks as one of his country's greatest artists.

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

He was born in Guanajuato and educated at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, Mexico City. He studied painting in Europe between 1907 and 1921, becoming familiar with the innovative cubist forms of the French painter Paul Cézanne and of Pablo Picasso.

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

In 1921 Rivera returned to Mexico and took a prominent part in the revival of mural painting initiated by artists and sponsored by the government. Believing that art should serve the working people and be readily available to them, he concentrated on painting large frescoes, concerning the history and social problems of Mexico, on the walls of public buildings.

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

His works during the 1930s included frescoes in the Ministry of Education at Mexico City and in the National Agricultural School at Chapingo.

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

Rivera was an active member of the Mexican Communist Party, and in 1927-1928 he taught in Moscow. After his return to Mexico he painted murals in the National Palace, Mexico City (1929), and the Palace of Cortes, Cuernavaca (1930). In 1929 Rivera married Frida Kahlo, who is now considered to have been a leading 20th-century Mexican painter.

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

He was influenced by her work, and included her portrait in many of his murals. Rivera also executed several works in the United States, including a mural (1932-1933) for the Detroit Institute of Arts. A fresco (1933) commissioned for the new RCA building in Rockefeller Center, New York City, was ordered destroyed shortly after its completion because it included a portrait of the Soviet leader Lenin.
Greatly influenced by indigenous Mexican art, Rivera's murals are simple and bold in design.
They are effective as social comment, having aroused much controversy among political and religious groups in both the U.S. and Mexico.
Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

Diego Rivera 1886-1957
Diego Rivera was born December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato in Mexico, to Diego and Maria Barrientos Rivera. Being a family of rather modest means, they lived in Guanajuato until 1892, when they moved to Mexico City. At the age of ten Diego Rivera was doing well in school, and, passionately fond of drawing from an early age, started taking evening painting classes at the San Carlos Academy. In 1898 he enrolled there as a full time student, and in 1906, at the annual show, he exhibited for the first time, with 26 works. Thus at age twenty Diego Rivera was established as a painter.

Diego's father was a municipal councellor in Guanajuato, and was a liberal and anticlerical man. Diego's two aunts, who lived with the family, were rather religious. Diego was interested in military issues, and he was especially fascinated by the Russian army and the conflict it was facing; the Tsar and the Orthodox Church versus Marxist Revolutionaries.
In 1907 Diego got a travel grant, and went to Spain. There he travelled around, and he also went to France, Belgium, and England. In Brussels in 1909 he met Angelina Belhoff, a slender, blond young Russian painter, a kind, sensitive, almost unbelievably decent person, and she became Diego's partner for the next twelve years.

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

They travelled together, mostly in Europe, and spent much time in Paris, where Diego Rivera participated in several exhibitions. During this time they had many friends, and several of these were Russians. The First World War broke out in Europe, and in Mexico the revolutionary folk hero Emiliano Zapata promoted returning the land to the people. It was in these years Diego Rivera became a revolutionary himself, and felt the call of his country. His friend, David Sternberg, the Soviet People's Commissar of Fine Arts had invited him to Russia, and Diego was tempted to go, but in 1921 he returned to Mexico instead.

We speculate that Diego's view of himself is portrayed to some extent in his murals, and in the mural Alameda Park, painted in 1948, Diego himself makes an appearance. We see a Diego who is not so grown up and serious, but rather youthful and happy, with many friends, many of them beautiful ladies, having a party, with death not so far away... Read More

Rivera, Diego (1886-1957) , Mexican painter

Claude Monet
1840 - 1926

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