The Life & Art Of Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, Mexican painter and muralist, was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Rivera’s paintings and murals influenced artists in the United States, Mexico, and Europe and are widely studied and appreciated today. The following resources provide images of Rivera’s work, background on his life, the artists and politics that influenced his work, and his legacy and influence on later artists.

Biography

As a young man, Diego Rivera studied painting in Madrid and Paris and was influenced by modernist artists, particularly Henri Rousseau, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque. While presenting his art at a show in Mexico, Rivera witnessed the 1910 Mexican Revolution that overthrew President Porfirio Diaz and installed Francisco Madero. After returning to Europe, Rivera abandoned cubism, which he thought only accessible to the inteligensia. Rivera believed that art should be accessible to all people, even the uneducated, and that there should be a Mexican artistic style, based on Mexico’s pre-Hispanic art. Rivera was commissioned by the Mexican government to create frescoes for public buildings that portrayed Mexican, religious, and pre-Hispanic themes. Rivera’s realist murals expressed the ideals of the Mexican Revolution, such as racial equality and national pride. Rivera incorporated the communist and socialist themes popular among Mexican artists of his day with pre-Hispanic indigenous religious themes to create some of his most famous murals, such as the frescoes at the National School of Agriculture in Chapingo.

  • Biography: Rivera’s life and work, his travels, his politics, and his involvement with the Communist party.
  • Rivera Biography: Biography of Diego Rivera; includes images of his work.
  • Biography of Rivera: Account of his life and career.
  • Visual Biography: Biography of Rivera from infancy to death, includes visuals of important people and places.

Collected Works

Rivera produced oil paintings and watercolors, although he is most famous for his frescoes and murals. Rivera’s earliest work as a student was in classical styles and his later paintings were in the Cubist and Post-Impressionist styles. His murals reflected a realist style. Rivera’s art was controversial and criticized by both the right and the left. Rivera was expelled from the Communist Party because he would not alter his work to conform to the Stalin’s restrictions on Social Realist art. His work in the United States was criticized for containing communist themes and his mural at Rockefeller Center was destroyed after he refused to remove an image of Vladimir Lenin. His art in Mexico reflects the socialist and populist themes he outlined with Leon Trotsky and Andre Breton in their 1938 manifesto of revolutionary art. Rivera expressed his support of the revolutionary movement of the working class though his Mexican murals.

  • Gallery: Gallery of Diego Rivera’s works, includes portraits, paintings, and murals.
  • Rivera Gallery: Gallery of paintings and murals. Also includes film clip sof Rivera explaining his art.
  • Rivera Paintings: Gallery of Rivera’s paintings and murals.
  • Rivera Images: Links to over 60 of Rivera’s paintings.

Legacy

Rivera is considered to have reintroduced mural and fresco painting into modern architecture. Rivera’s frescoes also influenced the conception of public art in the United States and the development of an authentically Mexican style of art. Rivera influenced mural painters in the United States working under the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. Rivera’s depiction of everyday life and national and political themes influenced both the artistic style of these muralists as well as their subject matter.

  • Rivera’s Frescoes: Rivera’s influence on mural painting in the United States.
  • The Legacy of Rivera: A curriculum for fourth grade students on Rivera and his legacy and impact on Mexican art and culture.
  • Influence of Rivera: The influence of Rivera on social realismand the African American muralists Charles White and Hale Woodruff.
  • Influence and Legacy of Rivera: The unit on 20th century Latin American Art focuses on the styles that influenced Rivera and on his contribution to cubism and muralism (link to complete unit, which is a pdf document).
  • Rivera and Kahlo: Biographies of both artists; includes information on teaching these artists to students.
  • Kahlo: Biography of Frida Kahlo, includes images of her work.

Similar Artists

Published on 2010-04-09