Diego Rivera
Paintings, Poster, Art Wallpapers, Art Prints,
Wallpaper
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Diego Rivera (1886-1957),
Mexican painter who produced murals on social themes, and who ranks as one of
his country's greatest artists. 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. 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. His works during the 1930s included frescoes in the
Ministry of Education at Mexico City and in the National Agricultural School at
Chapingo.
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. 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. |
