Diego Rivera
(1866-1957) Mexican painter born in Guanajuato. In 1921, he began a series
of murals in public buildings depicting the life and history (particularly
the popular uprisings) of the Mexican people. From 1930 to 1934, he executed
a number of frescoes in the USA, mainly of industrial life. His art is
a curious blend of the rhetorical realism of folk art and revolutionary
propaganda, with overtones of Byzantine and Aztec symbolism. His Man
at the Crossroads mural for the Rockefeller Center in New York (1933)
was removed and put up in Mexico City because it contained a portrait
of Lenin. He was married to Frida Kahlo.
Amedeo Modigliani. Portrait
of Diego Rivera.
Bibliography:
Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Chambers Harrap Publishers
Ltd. 1996.