About Everything

Written on August 13, 2010 – 12:33 pm | by admin |

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera (December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957) was a prominent Mexican painter born in Guanajuato, Gto, an active communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo (1929–1939 and 1940–1954). His large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance.
Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato City, Guanajuato, to a well-to-do family. Rivera was descended, on his mother’s side, from Jews who converted to Roman Catholicism, and, on his father’s side, from Spanish nobility. From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. He was sponsored to continue study in Europe by Teodoro A. Dehesa Méndez, the governor of the State of Veracruz.

After arrival in Europe in 1907, Rivera initially went to study with Eduardo Chicharro in Madrid, Spain, and from there went to Paris, France, to live and work with the great gathering of artists in Montparnasse, especially at La Ruche, where his friend Amedeo Modigliani painted his portrait in 1914. His circle of close friends, which included Ilya Ehrenburg, Chaim Soutine, Amadeo Modigliani and Modigliani’s wife Jeanne Hébuterne, Max Jacob, gallery owner Leopold Zborowski, and Moise Kisling, was captured for posterity by Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska (Marevna) in her painting “Homage to Friends from Montparnasse” (1962).

In those years, Paris was witnessing the beginning of cubism in paintings by such eminent painters as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. From 1913 to 1917, Rivera enthusiastically embraced this new school of art. Around 1917, inspired by Paul Cézanne’s paintings, Rivera shifted toward Post-Impressionism with simple forms and large patches of vivid colors. His paintings began to attract attention, and he was able to display them at several exhibitions.
In 1920, urged by Alberto J. Pani, the Mexican ambassador to France, Rivera left France and traveled through Italy studying its art, including Renaissance frescoes. After Jose Vasconcelos became Minister of Education, Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 to become involved in the government sponsored Mexican mural program planned by Vasconcelos.
In the autumn of 1927, Rivera arrived in Moscow, accepting an invitation to take part in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Subsequently, he was to paint a mural for the Red Army Club in Moscow, but in 1928 he was ordered out by the authorities because of involvement in anti-Soviet politics, and he returned to Mexico. In 1929, Rivera was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party. His 1928 mural In the Arsenal was interpreted by some as evidence of Rivera’s prior knowledge of the murder of Julio Antonio Mella allegedly by Stalinist assassin Vittorio Vidale. After divorcing Guadalupe (Lupe) Marin, Rivera married Frida Kahlo in August 1929.
Rivera was an atheist. His mural Dreams of a Sunday in the Alameda depicted Ignacio Ramírez holding a sign which read, “God does not exist”.

Self portrait dedicated to Irene Rich, 1941
Oil on canvas, 61 x 43 cm
Smith College Museum of Art
Northampton, MA, USA ▼

The threshing floor. La era, 1904
Oil on canvas, 100 x 114.6 cm
Museo Casa Diego Rivera
Guanajuato, Mexico ▼

Head of a breton woman, 1910
Oil on canvas
129 x 141 cm. Museo Casa Diego Rivera
Guanajuato, Mexico ▼

View of Toledo, 1912
Oil on canvas, 112 x 91 cm
Fundación Amparo R. de Espinosa Yglesias
Puebla, Mexico ▼

The adoration of the Virgin, 1913
Encaustic, Private collection ▼

Portrait d’Adolfo Best Maugard, 1913
Oil on canvas, 227.5 x 161.5 cm
Museo Nacional de Arte
CNCA, INBA, Mexico ▼

Woman at a well, 1913
Oil on canvas, 144 x 125 cm
Museo Nacional de Arte, MUNAL – INBA
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

La Tour Eiffel, 1914
Oil on canvas, 115 x 92 cm
Private collection ▼

Portrait of two women, 1914
Oil on canvas, The Arkansas Arts Center
Little Rock, Arkansas, USA ▼

Portrait de Martin Luis Guzman, 1915
Oil on canvas, 72.3 x 59.3 cm
Collection Funfacion Televisa
Mexico ▼

Zapatista landscape – The guerrilla, 1915
Oil on canvas
Museo Nacional de Arte
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

Portrait of Ramon Gomez de la Serna, 1915
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼

Motherhood – Angelina and the child Diego, 1916
Oil on canvas, 132 x 86 cm
Museo de Arte Alvar y Carmen T. de Carrillo Gil, MCG – INBA
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

The mathematician, 1918
Oil on canvas
Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

Woman grinding maize, 1924
Encaustic on canvas, 106.7 x 121.9 cm
Museo Nacional de Arte, MUNAL – INBA
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

Flower festival, 1925
Oil on canvas, 147.3 x 120.7 cm
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, CA, USA ▼

The pinole seller, 1936
Oil on canvas, 81.4 x 60.7 cm
Museo Nacional de Arte
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

Portrait of Lupe Marin, 1938
Oil on canvas, 171.3 x 122.3 cm
Museo de Arte Moderno
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

Portrait of Madesta and Inesita, 1939
Oil on canvas, 99 x 69 cm
Private collection ▼

The hands of Dr. Moore, 1940
Oil on canvas, 45.8 x 55.9 cm
San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego, CA, USA ▼

Portrait of Carlos Pellicer, 1942
Oil on hardboard, 55 x 43 cm
Private collection ▼

Portrait of Natasha Zakolkowa Gelman, 1943
Oil on canvas, 115 x 153 cm
Private collection ▼

The milliner. Portrait of Henri de Chatillon, 1944
Oil on masonite, Private collection ▼

Nude with Calla Lilies, 1944
Oil on hardboard, 157 x 124 cm
Private collection ▼

Day of the dead, 1944
Oil on hardboard, 73.5 x 91 cm
Museo de Arte Moderno
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

The temptations of Saint Antony, 1947
Oil on canvas, 90 x 110 cm
Museo Nacional de Arte
Mexico City, Mexico ▼

Dream of a Sunday afternoon in Alameda Park, 1948
Fresco, Musei Mural Diego Rivera, Mexico City
Originally in the Hotel del Prado on Alameda Park ▼

Portrait of Ruth Rivera, 1949
Oil on canvas, 199 x 100.5 cm
Private collection ▼

Pre-Hispanic America, 1950
Book cover for Pablo Neruda’s “Canto General”
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼

Portrait of the young girl Elenita Carrillo Flores, 1952
Oil on canvas, 55 x 105 cm
Private collection ▼

Portrait of senora Dona Elena Flores de Carrillo, 1953
Oil on canvas, 140 x 221.5 cm
Private collection ▼

The painter’s studio, 1954
Oil on canvas, 178 x 150 cm
Private collection ▼

May Day procession in Moscow, 1956
Oil on canvas, 135.2 x 108.3 cm
Private collection. ▼

Evening twilight at Acapulco, 1956
Oil and tempera on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
Private collection ▼