¿Por qué debemos estudiar Diego Rivera? Después de todo lo que fue controvertido, así como un individuo multifacético. La respuesta es simplemente que Rivera
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| ¿Por qué debemos estudiar Diego Rivera? Después de todo lo que fue controvertido, así como un individuo multifacético. La respuesta es simplemente que Rivera fue uno de los artistas más influyentes del Siglo XX. Él era una leyenda en su propio tiempo. El efecto de su arte se puede comparar con Michelangelo. Podemos aprender sobre la historia y de nosotros mismos a través de (through) los murales realizados por Diego Rivera, cuyo (whose) sueño era ser el artista de las Américas. DIEGO RIVERA Pintor mexicano que realizó (made, created) murales con temas sociales, considerado como uno de los grandes artistas del siglo XX. Nació en Guanajuato (1886) y fue educado en la Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos, en la ciudad de México. Entre 1907 y 1921 estudió pintura en Europa, principalmente en España y Francia, familiarizándose con las innovadoras formas cubistas de Pablo Picasso, el impresionismo de Renoir, la composición de Cézanne y otros artistas de la época. En 1921, Rivera regresó a México, donde representó un papel determinante (placed a decisive role) en el renacimiento de la pintura mural iniciado por otros artistas y patrocinado (sponsored) por el gobierno. Se dedicó (He devoted himself) a pintar grandes frescos, sobre la historia y los problemas sociales de su país, en los techos y paredes de edificios públicos, ya que consideraba que el arte debía servir a la clase trabajadora y estar fácilmente disponible (available) o a su alcance (reach, grasp). Entre 1923 y 1926 realizó los murales al fresco de la Secretaría de Educación en la ciudad de México, pero su obra maestra es La tierra fecunda (1927) para la Escuela Nacional de Agricultura de Chapingo, donde representa el desarrollo biológico del hombre y su conquista de la naturaleza. Diego Rivera pintó murales en el Palacio de Cortés, en Cuernavaca (1930) y en la Secretaría de Salubridad (Health). En 1929 se casó con Frida Kahlo, considerada una representante fantástica de la pintura introspectiva mexicana del siglo XX. Fue uno de los fundadores del Partido Comunista Mexicano. Su fama lo llevó a exponer (exhibit) y trabajar en Estados Unidos, su obra allí incluye un mural (1932-1933) para el Instituto de Bellas Artes de Detroit y un fresco, Hombre en la encrucijada (1933), encargado para el nuevo edificio de la RCA en el Rockefeller Center de Nueva York, y destruido poco después de su realización porque contenía, al parecer, un retrato del líder soviético Lenin. Un año después, Rivera lo reprodujo para el Palacio de Bellas Artes de México. En 1935 concluyó uno de sus proyectos más ambiciosos, los frescos para la escalera monumental del Palacio Nacional de la ciudad de México, con su propia interpretación de la historia de su país, desde los tiempos precolombinos hasta la actualidad (present times). En la década de 1940 pintó dos grandes murales en el Instituto Nacional de Cardiología (1944), y otro gran mural para el Hotel del Prado, Sueño de la Alameda (1947), de tema histórico-crítico. Sus últimas obras las realizó en mosaico de piedras naturales, como las del Estadio de la ciudad universitaria de México o el del Teatro Insurgentes, ambas en el exterior. Diego Rivera fue también prolífico en su obra de caballete (easel), con una visión muy alegre y también sensual del folclore de su país. Dibujante magistral (masterful) y estupendo colorista, demostró un gran talento para estructurar sus obras. Legó (Bequeathed, left) a México una importante colección de estatuillas de diversas culturas indígenas, que instaló en su casa museo, el Anahuacalli, en la ciudad de México. Como él mismo dijo, condensando (summarizing) el sentido de su obra, su propósito (purpose) era ligar (to link) un gran pasado con lo que queremos que sea un gran futuro de México. Murió el 24 de noviembre de 1957 en la ciudad de México.
“An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can’t feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn’t capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won’t put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn’t a great artist.” Considered the greatest Mexican painter of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera had a profound effect on the international art world. Among his many contributions, Rivera is credited with the reintroduction of fresco painting into modern art and architecture. His radical political views and tempestuous romance with the painter Frieda Kahlo were then, and remain today, a source of public intrigue. In a series of visits to America, from 1930 to 1940, Rivera brought his unique vision to public spaces and galleries, enlightening and inspiring artists and laymen alike. Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Mexico in 1886. He began to study painting at an early age and in 1907 moved to Europe. Spending most of the next fourteen years in Paris, Rivera encountered the works of such great masters as Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, and Matisse. Rivera was searching for a new form of painting, one that could express the complexities of his day and still reach a wide audience. It was not until he began to study the Renaissance frescoes of Italy that he found his medium. It was with a vision of the future of the fresco and with a strong belief in public art that Rivera returned to Mexico. Frescoes are mural paintings done on fresh plaster. Using the fresco form in universities and other public buildings, Rivera was able to introduce his work into the everyday lives of the people. Rivera concerned himself primarily with the physical process of human development and the effects of technological progress. For him, the frescoes’ size and public accessibility was the perfect canvas on which to tackle the grand themes of the history and future of humanity. A life long Marxist, Rivera saw in this medium an antidote to the elite walls of galleries and museums. Throughout the twenties his fame grew with a number of large murals depicting scenes from Mexican history. His work appealed to the people’s interest in the history of technology and progress. The desire to understand progress was visible in the growing industrial societies of the 1930s, and Rivera saw the workers’ struggle as a symbol of the fragile political ground on which that capitalism trod. In 1930, Rivera made the first of a series of trips that would alter the course of American painting. In November of that year, Rivera began work on his first two major American commissions: for the American Stock Exchange Luncheon Club and for the California School of Fine Arts. These two pieces firmly but subtly incorporated Rivera’s radical politics, while maintaining a sense of simple historicity. One of Rivera’s greatest gifts was his ability to condense a complex historical subject (such as the history of California’s natural resources) down to its most essential parts. For Rivera, the foundation of history could be seen in the working class, whose lives were spent by war and industry in the name of progress. In these first two commissions and all of the American murals to follow, Rivera would investigate the struggles of the working class. In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Rivera arrived in Detroit, where, at the behest of Henry Ford, he began a paean to the American worker on the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Completed in 1933, the piece depicted industrial life in the United States, concentrating on the car plant workers of Detroit. Rivera’s radical politics and independent nature had begun to draw criticism during his early years in America. Though the fresco was the focus of much controversy, Edsel Ford, Henry’s son, defended the work and it remains today Rivera’s most significant painting in America. Rivera, however, did not fare nearly so well in his association with the Rockefellers in New York City. In 1933 the Rockefellers commissioned Rivera to paint a mural for the lobby of the RCA building in Rockefeller Center. “Man at the Crossroads” was to depict the social, political, industrial, and scientific possibilities of the twentieth century. In the painting, Rivera included a scene of a giant May Day demonstration of workers marching with red banners. It was not the subject matter of the panel that inflamed the patrons, but the clear portrait of Lenin leading the demonstration. When Rivera refused to remove the portrait, he was ordered to stop and the painting was destroyed. That same year, Rivera used the money from the Rockefellers to create a mural for the Independent Labor Institute that had Lenin as its central figure. Rivera remained a central force in the development of a national art in Mexico throughout his life. In 1957, at the age of seventy, Rivera died in Mexico City. Perhaps one his greatest legacies, however, was his impact on America’s conception of public art. In depicting scenes of American life on public buildings, Rivera provided the first inspiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s WPA program. Of the hundreds of American artists who would find work through the WPA, many continued on to address political concerns that had first been publicly presented by Rivera. Both his original painting style and the force of his ideas remain major influences on American painting. 1. What is the purpose of art?
Diego Rivera believed that art should play a role in empowering working people to understand their own histories. Do you agree with this? Do you agree with Rivera’s statement that “art is essential for human life”? Why/why not? Historically every group of people has produced art. Why do you think this is? 2. Murals are usually found in public places and they generally tell a story.
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