Diego Rivera is one of the most well known Mexican artists. He is not only the husband of Frida Kahlo, whose paintings are famous far outside Mexico but also an independent author, whose style is bright, recognizable and not alike someone else’s. The artists managed to reborn the frescoes art, and introduce it, and make it popular on the American ground (Diego Rivera About the Artist). Actually, at the time when both Rivera and Kahlo were alive the husband was more famous that his wife. This happens not only because of his paintings and murals but also because of his social position and point of view.
Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1886. When Diego was at the age of two his father saw his son’s talent for painting. When he was ten his eagerness to become painter became obvious. He attended lessons at the National School of Art in Mexico. However, he did not finish school. At the age of 20 Rivera came to Europe to enrich his competence, to study by European masters. He even became rather successful as a Cubist author but still could not find his own style (Norwood, 2006). Later, in Italy he saw famous frescoes and understood that murals were the objects he would paint.
After deciding on the form of his art expression, Rivera started to search for his style. The second and third decade of the 20th century was a complicated period in the world history. Particularly, the World War II, October Revolution of 1917 and of course Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920 took place. Last two events of course influenced the artist and his view on the art. He decided to depict working class on his paintings and murals. Basically, lots of his paintings can illustrate the social realism as a notion in American art history. Furthermore, Diego Rivera joined the Communist Party of Mexico (Diego Rivera. About the Artist). Later he was expelled because of his cooperation with US architects and work on the premises of the United States but still care of the working class was one of the main themes of Rivera’s work.
Frescoes by Diego Rivera were considered controversial and even undesired not only in the democratic United States but also in his native Mexico. It happened because of his communist and atheist points of view and the form he expressed them. For example, a mural at the Rockefeller Centre in New York City called Man at the Crossroads (1933, paint) contained the portrait of Vladimir Lenin. Nelson Rockefeller, of course, disliked the image of Lenin and asked to remove it from the painting but Rivera did not. The fresco was ruined. The next year the artist remade it at one of the walls of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. The same year artist made another mural. This time it contained portraits of Stalin and Mao Tse-tung (Diego and his Murals). Later the images were removed.
Another way, Rivera shocked the public was his attitude to religion. Mexico is a catholic country and the beliefs are very strong there but Diego Rivera managed to born and raised as an atheist. His lack of belief comes from the early life but he continued to be atheist till the last days of his life (Zacarias). On his famous mural Sunday Afternoon Dream in the Alameda Central he wrote Dios no Existe (God does not exist). This phrase insulted young Catholics and they damaged the fresco. It was placed at the lobby of the Prado Hotel in Mexico but then was duplicated by the author in 1947-48.
As it can be seen Diego Rivera was not only communist in his words but also in his deeds. He depicted leaders of the communists’ world, he even went to Moscow to meet with some of them and he denied religion as it contradicts with the real communism. Apart from such controversial murals Diego Rivera made also series of brilliant frescoes illustrating the pleasure of labor, the representatives of the working class, who were on the verge of building a happy future with their own hands. On the one hand, he used techniques typical for the Social Realism because he belonged to them, because the idea of socialism and communism was close to him.
On the other hand, his style was individual because added lots of special Mexican details. For example, on the series of frescoes Detroit Industry (1932-1933, paint) shaped at the Detroit Institute of Arts Diego Rivera painted men and women at work. The pictures are not really realistic because the proportions are somehow unbalanced but it is how the author saw the social realism. Men and women should be stronger to work more, to speed up the progress and to achieve the future earlier. At some of these murals his characters are tired but they are satisfied with the work they do. Communists as well as Goethe’s Faustus saw the happiness in work and therefore, industrial pictures were the subject of illustration by artists. For Diego Rivera it is true as well. What is negative depicted on the Rivera’s frescoes is the exploitation of the poor working class by richer people. These moments also can be seen at the Detroit Industry.
Diego Rivera is world famous by his murals. However, he did not write only them. There are lots of paintings in his legacy. One of them, which illustrate his view on the working class is the painting dedicated to the First May parade in Moscow (1956). There thousands of people waving flags and holding a big blue bubble with the title Peace on it can be seen. Rivera shows his beliefs in the victory of communism by this painting as well as his attitude to the work as pleasure and aim of living because 1st May is the Labour Day and people gathered to celebrate it at the Red Square of Moscow because their work is joy for them.
Diego Rivera dedicated his life to the communism and working class. He depicted ordinary workers. They could be workers from factories or typical Mexican handcrafters. But all of them were painted with love and care because they were the main audience of the author and the people whom he wanted to be close with, whom he respected and whom he tried to understand.
Works Cited
Diego Rivera. About the Artist. PBS. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/diego-rivera/about-the-artist/64/
Diego Rivera and His Murals. PBS. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/diego-riveras-murals/
Diego Rivera. The Complete Works. Diego Rivera. Detroit Industry. Diego Rivera Foundation. Web. http://www.diego-rivera-foundation.org/Detroit-Industry-19,--1932-33.html
Norwood, Susan. Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1999/2/99.02.06.x.html
Zacarias, Marela Trejo. Kenyon college. Visual Biography of Diego Rivera. Web. 18 Nov 2012. http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Mll/Spanish/Projects/Trejo-Zacarias/english.htm
