Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera was a famous Mexican painter. He was born on December 8, 1886, and died on November 24, 1957. He is best known for his large frescoes. These helped start the mural movement in Mexican and international art.

From 1922 to 1953, Rivera created many murals in places like Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan held a special show of his work. This was just before he began painting a big series called the Detroit Industry Murals.

Rivera married four times and had many children. His third wife was the well-known artist Frida Kahlo. Because of his big role in Mexico's art history, the government named his works as monumentos históricos. One of his paintings sold for a very high price in 2018. This was the highest price ever for a work by a Latin American artist at that time.

Personal life

Diego Rivera was born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico. His mother’s family had ancestors who were Spanish and had changed from Judaism to Catholicism. Rivera was not raised with a religion, but he felt this background helped shape his art and made him care about people who were treated unfairly.

Rivera began drawing when he was three. After moving to Paris, he married an artist named Angelina Beloff, but their son passed away when he was very young. Later, he married Guadalupe Marín and had two daughters. He then met and married the famous artist Frida Kahlo. Their relationship was strong but difficult, and they divorced but later remarried. Rivera had strong opinions and did not believe in any religion. He studied art in Mexico and later in Europe, where he made many friends among artists and writers.

Career in Mexico

In 1920, Diego Rivera left France to study art in Italy. He looked at old wall paintings there. He returned to Mexico in 1921 to help start a big project. The project was to paint large wall pictures, called murals, with other famous artists.

Starting in 1922, Rivera began painting big murals about Mexican life and history. His paintings often showed stories from Mexico’s past. He used simple shapes and strong colors. Some of his most famous works are in Mexico City, Chapingo, and Cuernavaca. His art tells stories, much like old stone carvings from ancient Mexico.

Later years

In 1927, Rivera traveled to Moscow to celebrate an important event. The next year, he met Alfred H. Barr Jr., who became a good friend. Barr helped start the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Rivera was asked to paint a mural, but in 1928, he had to leave. He went back to Mexico. In 1929, he married the artist Frida Kahlo. They met when she was a student. That same year, a book about Rivera’s art was published in New York City. Later, Rivera began painting murals in Cuernavaca.

In 1930, Rivera was asked to create art in San Francisco. He and Kahlo moved there in November. Rivera painted a mural for a city club and another for a school of art. During this time, he met Helen Wills, a famous tennis player, who posed for his mural.

In 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City showed Rivera’s work, and Kahlo joined him for the event. Between 1932 and 1933, Rivera finished a big project: twenty-seven paintings for a museum in Detroit. Part of the cost was paid by Edsel Ford, a member of the Ford family.

In 1933, Rivera was asked to paint a mural in New York City. The mural showed workers, but some people did not like it, so it was taken down. Rivera was asked to leave the United States. He later painted a new version in Mexico City in 1934.

In 1940, Rivera returned to the United States for the last time to paint a mural in San Francisco. The mural shows many people and includes pictures of Kahlo and some artists. Rivera’s helper on this mural was Thelma Johnson Streat, an artist and dancer. The mural is now at City College of San Francisco.

In 1946-47, Rivera painted a fresco that shows a famous character from the Day of the Dead. The character was created by José Guadalupe Posada.

Autobiography

DMy Life, My Art: An Autobiography, by Diego Rivera, with Gladys March, was published after his death in 1960. It began from a newspaper interview in 1944. March spent many months with Rivera, collecting his stories about his art and life, and wrote them as if Rivera himself was telling them.

Selected exhibitions

Diego Rivera’s artwork has been shown in many exhibitions around the world. Some notable ones include:

• 1986: “Diego Rivera: A Retrospective” was displayed in Detroit, Philadelphia, Mexico City, Berlin, and London.
• 2004: “The Cubist Paintings of Diego Rivera” was shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City.
• 2009: “Diego Rivera: The Cubist Portraits, 1913–1917” was exhibited at The Meadows Museum in Dallas, Texas.
• 2011: “Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art” was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• 2013: “Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics, and Painting” was shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, and “Diego Rivera in San Antonio” was exhibited at the San Antonio Museum of Art.
• 2015: Exhibitions about Rivera and Frida Kahlo were held in Detroit and New Orleans.
• 2016: “Picasso and Rivera: Conversations Across Time” was displayed at LACMA in Los Angeles and later in Mexico City.
• 2019–2022: “Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism” traveled to several museums including Philbrook Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Norton Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, North Carolina Museum of Art, and Frist Art Museum.
• 2020: “Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945” was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
• 2021: “In Dialogue: Diego Rivera” was exhibited at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art.
• 2022: “Diego Rivera's America” was displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
• 2024: “Pan American Unity: A Mural by Diego Rivera” was shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
• 2025: “Rivera's Paris” will be exhibited at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts.
• 2026: “Frida and Diego: The Last Dream” will be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.