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Diego Rivera
(Dec 8,1886–Nov 24,1957)
Mexican painter and muralist.
VCS Master-of-the-Month, September, 2007
(scroll-down to see examples of his works -- links in this narrative will redirect to wikipedia)
• Rivera’s talent for historical murals and his tributes to earthy folk traditions made him one of the
most influential artists in the Americas and one of Mexico’s most beloved painters.
• Diego Rivera studied art in Mexico as a youth, and gained a deep appreciation for his country’s art and traditions. Many of his paintings depict the people of his native land.
• When Diego Rivera was very young, his father covered the walls of Diego’s room with art canvas to encourage Diego’s drawing abilities. Both of Diego’s parents were school teachers in Mexico.
• At age 21, Diego went to Europe in 1907 to study art. He lived and worked with famous artists in Paris, France. Paris in those years was witnessing the emergence of cubism in paintings by such eminent painters as Picasso, Braque; inspired by Cezanne.
•From 1913 to 1918 Rivera himself enthusiastically embraced this new school of art, as his masterly cubist paintings demonstrate.
• In 1920 Rivera left France and, after traveling through Italy, returned to Mexico in 1921 to continue his prolific career as an artist. Having been born in Guanajuato, he became involved in the new Mexican mural movement. He began to experiment with fresco painting on large walls. Rivera soon developed his own style of large, simplified figures and bold colors.
•Rivera then painted several significant works in the United States. From 1930 to 1933 he completed a number of frescoes in the United States, mostly consisting of industrial life.
• Perhaps his finest surviving work in the United States are the 27 fresco panels entitled Detroit Industry on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan).
En el Arsenal detail,
1928
Detroit Industry, North
Wall, 1932-33. Detroit Institute of Arts.
Detroit Industry, South
Wall, 1932-33. Detroit Institute of Arts
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