Rivera, Diego (1886–1957)

Recognized for murals that link aesthetic form with politics, Diego Rivera is widely considered Mexico's greatest muralist. He is prominent among the artists involved in the Mexican muralist movement, which defined muralism as the confluence of art and politics in postrevolution Mexico. Rivera's most famous Mexican murals visually parallel the radical changes taking place in Mexico following the Revolution, and his mature aesthetic combines the visual elements of Classical Realism (perspective) and allegory (symbolism) with the principles of Cubism and Futurism. Binaries of chaos/order, good/evil, and unity/disunity depict the struggle between the privileged and dispossessed and define a new standard for Mexico's public art. Rivera's art produced a powerful nationalist statement that bound aesthetic formalism and ethnography in a time when the stakes for expression were high.

Rivera lived with his parents in Guanajuanto, Mexico, but in 1892, Rivera Sr. moved the family to Mexico City. In 1897, young Rivera enrolled at San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts. Later, under José María Velasco's tutelage, Rivera gained a solid understanding of structure and composition. Also proving decisive in Rivera's life and work was printmaker José Guadalupe Posada, and the graphic nature of Rivera's [Page 1221]art—its volumetric appeal—owes much to the print-maker's art. Rivera's first paintings were landscapes and figure studies in the manner of Velasco, but following an extended period of travel and study in Europe, a sea change in his style is evident. An art scholarship enabled Rivera to leave Mexico for Spain (1907–1908) and France, where he spent nearly 10 years. There, he formed a friendship with leading Spanish avant-garde artist Pablo Picasso. During his time there, he also interacted with Georges Braque and Juan Gris and painted under the influence of Matisse and Cézanne.

This is a portion of the Detroit Industry mural depicting the groups of visitors watching the production line at the Ford plant. Rivera considered the Detroit murals to be the most successful commission of his career.

Source: Detroit Industry, Detroit Institute of Arts. Photo taken by Robert W. Lane, Art Historian, Saline, Michigan.

The paintings produced during Rivera's Paris sojourn not only are visual documents of his embrace of Cubist principles, they also testify to his ability to recreate volume, a technique that he used in later explorations of the pre-Hispanic aesthetic. From Paris's vortex of early-20th-century modern art, Rivera traveled to Italy, where he viewed classical historical paintings and works by Renaissance masters; and later, when he toured Russia (1927–1928), he viewed the power of the political in Social Realist art (the art movement that exalted the struggle of the worker). In 1921, Rivera returned to Mexico, where Minister of Education José Vasconcelos appointed him to an art-related government position. At Vasconcelos's invitation, Rivera traveled to Yucatan to view the pre-conquest sites of Chichén Itza and Uxmal, in order to seek inspiration for a mural commission that was designed to visually consolidate postrevolution nationalism.

In early 1922, Rivera began work on the mural Creation in the Anfiteatro Bolívar of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National Preparatory School), for which he drew heavily on his Italian studies. The press attacked the Preparatoria murals, and at the instigation of a conservative political group, students of the school rioted. In addition, they presented a petition to Vasconcelos demanding that Rivera's work be discontinued. As a consequence, the mural program at the [Page 1222]Escuela ceased. While Rivera claimed that he was more interested in content than in form, his first murals are considered unsuccessful because they do not register the artist's signature style (a blend of modernist and historical aesthetics). The paintings nevertheless display a sensual exploration of color and technique of almost perfect symmetry.

...