Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020
Diego Rivera.
(1886-1957)
Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020
Diego Rivera was a Mexican Artist; known as the “Mexican Social Realist
Muralist”. He was born in 1886 in Guanajuato Mexico. At the age of six his parents
decided to move to Mexico City, where he discovered his ability to do the art work.
After this, he began to study in the academy of San Carlos in the evenings, at the
same time he was attending to a military school which he did not liked, later he let the
military school to attend full time to the art academy, he studied there some time, but
later he was expelled from there.
Then he decided to do his art without going to school. His father was not happy
with this; he wanted to help his son to achieve his goals, so he helped him to get a
scholarship to study in Europe. This was awarded by a Mexican governor who was
impressed with Diego’s art.
In 1907 he arrived to Europe. Spain was the first place where he lived, and then
he started searching for new forms of painting. Working with great artist, he spend years
round Europe cities. In Italy he started studying Renaissance frescoes, which were the
paintings that he found more interesting and that were good seen by people.
With his desire to express him self in his frescos and introduce his work to his
country. He returns to Mexico and began to paint his frescoes in Universities and other
public buildings. This works out; because people were able to appreciate his work and it
make him become famous. At this point he was considered “the greatest twenty century
Mexican painter”.
Diego made Mexican culture a big part of his art.
Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020
In the National Palace, he painted big murals such as: “History of Mexico” which
contains events from the Spanish Conquest through the Mexican independence,
the “legend of Quetzalcoatl”, “The Grand Tenochtitlan” which is a view of Mexico,
its pyramids and the Aztecs capital, it also contains the “Totonac Civilization” with
a market full of food and people selling and buying things.
In 1930, his art started to spread to the United States. On this year he was
invited to paint murals in the American Stock Exchange club and for California School of
Fine Arts. Always before he started painting his murals, he liked to investigate and
observe how the workers were treated and how they struggle with their labors. So in his
murals he was painting the workers of the different places, this was the reason why his
art had lots of criticism.
After the paintings in those two places he was invited to paint murals in the
Detroit Museum, where he supposed to paint things from the cars company, but
because his political views; he focus his work in the car plant workers. The people he
showed working there were people from different countries working together, which
cause a big controversy. This art work was going to be destroyed, because of the
controversy, but Henry’s son defends Diego’s work and thanks to him it still there.
Diego considered Detroit Industry fresco as the most successful piece of his
carrier.
After Detroit, the next most controversial paint was in New York City. In 1933,
Diego was invited to paint a mural on the RCA building in the Rockefeller Center. Again
based on what he saw when he was investigating, he was painting his mural. The result
Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020
from it was a mural called “Man at the crossroads” it was a mix view of different things
that were happen on those times. Diego Rivera was painting things that he wanted to
express and not the things that the people who ask him to paint wanted. They made him
stop the painting and it was covered with a curtain first, then later it was destroyed.
(1933)
When he went back to Mexico he did this painting again. Differently from the
other one he named this painting “Man, Controller of The Universe.” This one contains
Lenin controlling everything around him, as the one in New York and he also included
another communist leader. This Painting was not destroyed and still in the Palace of
fine arts in Mexico City. (1934)
From 1947 to 1948, he marked the Alameda Park in Mexico City with other of his
now famous paintings. The mural “A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon”: In the center of this
mural was a child: He was Diego Rivera when he was a child. A skeleton holding
Diego’s hand: dressed as a woman and holding in her neck some feathers representing
“Quetzalcoatl”. The skeleton was an art work of Jose Guadalupe posada: who is well
known for his art, which is mostly about death. This mural also includes him close to
Diego and a woman: who is Frida Kalo his wife, she is behind him and looks like she is
protecting him.
In contrast with the center, the sides of the mural are totally different. The right
side contained Mexican people who were known as the low class. Other side contained
the upper class: well dressed people. And another one contained armed people: one
person there was General Winfield Scott, during the Mexican American war.
Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020
As I mentioned before all his life was very controversial. All of his art work had
different impacts on society and maybe this was his goal, to become know by the
people in this way. Showing in his art his opinions and how he saw the world around
him.
His personal life was very controversial too. Because of his political opinions he
had lots of problems with people he knew through his life. His romantic life always was
also in the middle of scandals: At the beginning with his first wife Lupe Marin, then with
the famous artist Frida Kalo. He meets Frida when he was still married with Lupe, later
he divorced from Lupe and married with Frida. Then divorced from Frida and after some
time he remarried with Frida. People said that his divorces were because he was
disloyal and his wives knew that.
After all these scandals he had hard times finding people who wanted a mural
painted by him. So he was doing his wok for himself, in1957 at the age of seventy Diego
Rivera died in Mexico City. His art is now in different places, like here in the United
States and in Mexico. His home is now a museum and contains many of his paintings.
All this information is according to what I read and see on his murals, but
because the controversy of his life, many people have different opinions or points of
view of his artwork. I personally liked his paintings because they were about real life;
they expressed his feelings and point of view about people. I think my favorite mural is
the one called “A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon” because he mixed different people
which maybe in real life would never be together o close to each other. I think all of his
murals are very interesting and full of history.
Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020
Other things that I like about his murals are that they are huge and full of color.
And that we can still see them in different parts of the world.
Even if Diego Rivera was known as a controversial artist, his had lots of fans of
his work. With respect of this I think his expressions are one thing and how the people
want to interpret his work is another. I take his work as a good way of expression and a
way to exaggerate things.
Others of his famous paintings include:
“Lupe Marin: portrait of his first wife.
The Arsenal: Frida Kalo distributing arms.
The Flower Carrier: a man selling flowers
View of Toledo.
Zapatista Landscape: The Guerrilla.
The Maize Festival: Political view of Mexican people.
The Outskirt of Paris.
La Tour Eiffel.
Still life.
Sailor of Breakfast
Portrait of Quetzalcoatl.”
Elizabeth Vazquez.
Art 1020