Diego Rivera example essay topic

Diego Rivera is considered the father of Mexican mural art and the father of modern political art in Mexico. Diego reinterpreted Mexican history from a revolutionary and nationalistic point of view. Not only did Diego expressed powerful ideas in his murals, but he also applied the tools he learned with modernist techniques. More than any other artist, Diego Rivera provided models for incorporating cultural past and ethnic identity into an alternative modernist vision, one that provided for a responsible fusion of the social and the aesthetic.

Diego was an important personality in the art world of the 20th century and his thoughts were well respected in the art community. He was an innovator in expressing his ideals unifying art and politics. Diego Mar " ia de la Rivera y Barrientos and his twin brother Carlos were born on December 13, 1886 in Leon, Guanajuato. Carlos died in 1888, which left Diego as an only child. Since he was very young (he begins to draw at the age of three), he loved to paint, so much that his father covered a room of their house in Guanajuato with paper so that the child could paint all over the walls. Diego says that it was in that room where he created his first murals.

In 1896, while he was still in high-school, he entered the Academy of San Carlos. He was so obviously talented that in 1906, after his first show, he was granted a four year scholarship from the governor of Veracruz, Teodoro Dahe sa, to continue his studies in Europe. In 1907 he goes to Spain, where he promptly becomes part of the intellectual circles. After studying there for two years he moves to Paris and starts living with Angelina Belloff.

Angelina Belloff was a Russian 'emir'e artist. Diego met her in Spain among the artistic circles. Diego and Angelina had a son but due to an flu epidemic the child died in the fall of 1918. Diego had many lovers, among them was Marvena, another Russian woman.

Diego and Marvena had a child named Marika right after the death of Angelina's baby. Diego precisely describes his relationship with Angelina when he says 'She gave me everything a woman can give to a man. In return, she received from me all the heartache and misery that a man can inflict upon a woman' In June of 1921 Rivera left Belloff in Paris and goes to Mexico, saying that once he is established he will send for Angelina. He never does and they do not see each other again until many years later and by pure chance. While studying in Spain, Rivera was fascinated by the works of Cezanne, who introduced him to cubism. He was also very interested in Mondrian and created many paintings reproducing his style.

His greatest influence, however, was Pablo Picasso's. Diego was interested in cubism because it questioned the pre-established conceptions of painting. With his cubist work, such as 'Zapatista Landscape,' ' Woman at the Well' and 'Sailor at Lunch,' Rivera earned recognition among the artistic circles in Paris. This technique, however, did not fulfill him completely because he felt a lack of originality in his work. He was following Picasso's trend and felt that he would never be like him. This is why he decides to find his own style by going back to a more realistic way of painting.

The most prominent critic of the time, Pierre Re verdy, did not appreciate Rivera's change of style, and neither did Leone Rosenberg, his art dealer. The art community abandoned Diego, which left him in absolute poverty because no one would buy his paintings. This decision proved costly to his reputation as a modernist, but not to the evolution of his aesthetics. The situation, however, forced Diego to go back to Mexico on July of 1921. Diego Rivera's style, was the product of the influence of many different art styles, such as cubism, impressionism, classical European style and Aztec art. His murals had a busyness that remind us the Baroque, covering Churches with images and details.

Some critics referred to Diego's particular style as 'agoraphobic' because he seemed to be afraid of having open space in his paintings. In his murals he uses many symbols that come from Aztec codices. For example, he uses the colors and figures of idols, as well as the way in which the Indians used images to narrate myths and historical events. In some of his work we can see a use of space that comes from cubism (in Creation, for example) and a use of perspective that comes from his early classical studies. In the sketches of the murals we can see how he used architectural skills as well as a lot of geometry.

Rivera was a very skilled painter, and as Jos'e Vasconcelos says, 'everything could be forgiven to Diego because he knew how to paint with exact drawing and perfect coloring when he wanted " The birth of Mexican mural art in the 1920's was one of the most revolutionary events the government has done for the country because it recognized the power of political art. The new regime had a general consciousness of the power of art as an agent of change and subversion. The movement of Mexican mural art was a new kind of Modernism, it did not use the modern styles, like cubism and surrealism. Instead, its innovative quality was to go back to realism to express revolutionary thoughts.

The style used in them was in many ways a contradiction. As Octavio Paz says 'The Mexican mural movement on the one hand is the consequence of European artistic movements of the early years of the century; on the other, it is a response to those movements that... is a negation of them as well'. It is a common quality of rebellion in art to criticize by using the elements of what is being criticized. In Europe, modernism was a movement against the established rules of how to create art.

In Latin America, however, modernism was also influenced by the social revolutions occurring in many Latin American countries, such as Mexico. In the midst of social chaos, Art served a social function to communicate the ideas of the revolution to the people. The impact of the Mexican Revolution was immense, and the activities of the Mexican mural painters in interpreting and disseminating the ideals of the Revolution, in promoting the idea of an art for the people, and in helping to realize a cultural nationalism under revolutionary conditions were felt far beyond Mexico itself, and were important factors in contemporary cultural and artistic debates. Diego's second wife was Guadalupe Mar " in of Guadalajara. Diego and Lupe were introduced by Concha Michel, the famous singer. About the way in which they met, Diego recalls that Concha wanted to be his lover but she could not be because she was married.

In order to take away the temptation of an affair with him she decided to find for him a woman who would be 'handsomer, freer and braver' than her. Diego loved and admired Lupe. He also loved her body, which he painted in many of his work. In his biography he refers to her as a 'beautiful, spirited animal', with hair that 'looked more like that of a chestnut,' with hands 'that had the beauty of tree roots or eagle talons'. The problem with Lupe for Diego was her jealousy and possessiveness, which, added to the fact that Diego was not a faithful husband created all kinds of uncomfortable fights.

Their relationship ended before Diego left to go to Russia in 1927. Frida Kahlo was Diego's third and most important wife. She was a mestiza of European (German) father and Mexican mother. Her life was full of suffering from the beginning to the end. She had polio at age six; she had a horrible accident at 18 which caused her all kinds of problems forcing her to go through at least 30 operations. Her marriage with Diego was also a cause of anguish due to Diego's multiple affairs.

Frida was also a painter and she is now considered as important as the Mexican muralists. Her paintings were mainly self- portraits in which she was able to express her pain. Her style was known as ',' full of bright colors and Mexican details. Some people call her a surrealist although she says that what she paints is her own reality. Diego described her paintings as revealing 'an unusual energy of expression, precise delineation of character, and true serenity with a fundamental plastic honesty and artistic personality of their own " Even though Diego's and Frida's marriage was difficult at times due to Diego's infidelities, it was based on true love. In his biography, Diego tells, right before his death, that he realized that the only worthy thing in his life was his love for Frida.

They always respected and admired each-other and over all had the most wonderful friendship. Diego was an absolute atheist. He did not believe in God and made this very explicit in many of his murals. His lack of belief on religion comes from a very early age. Since he was three years old he was known as 'the little atheist,' and he continued to be one until the last days of his life. For example, he wrote in his mural at the Alameda Central 'Dios no exist " and caused a huge controversy in Mexican society.

Catholic students damaged the image of Diego as a boy and tried to erase the 'insulting' words Rivera was an active member of the Communist party and he started, with Jos'e Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, the 'Sindicato Nacional de Pinto res. ' His participation in the party, however, was very influenced by his activities as a painter. Diego tried to express his communist ideas through his paintings and in some way, this made him a symbol for communism. For this reason all his actions would be closely watched by the party. The communist party was very anti-government and Diego's commissions were mostly government-funded, which made him a doubtful communist. In September of 1926 he was expelled from the Mexican communist party for having accepted to be the director of the San Carlos Academy of Art.

(He was granted this job by the government). Even though he tried many times, he was never accepted back into the party. Frida dies on July 13 of 1954. This marks the start of Diego's own death. In 1955 he is diagnosed with cancer but he keeps working on his murals. On July 29th, almost a year after Frida's death he marries Emma Hurtado, his agent since 1946.

He is hospitalized in Russia and recovers completely from cancer. However, in September of the same year he suffers a blood clot and phlebitis, which paralyzes his right arm. He keeps working in some paintings and in decorating the house of his friend Dolores Olmedo. On November 24th of 1957 Diego Rivera dies of heart failure in his San Angel studio and wills his art to the Mexican Nation.