11 Things You Didn’t Know About Diego Rivera

Knowledge can be gained at any age. After having a detailed study on topics there are things unknown to us. So, we at Abirpothi present before you the lesser-known facts about artists around the world.

Diego Rivera

An image of Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera was a Mexican artist who broke from traditional painting to produce work that encapsulated Mexican culture, society, history, and politics. He is regarded as one of the country\’s most famous painters. On December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico, he was born Diego Mara de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodrguez. Diego Rivera altered Mexican art by using painted murals to express his revolutionary political beliefs and support Mexico in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. Rivera and his wife, Frida Kahlo, propelled Mexican art to international prominence in the twentieth century, and his large-scale murals are an important part of the cultural landscape in his chosen city of Mexico City. Diego Rivera\’s influence on Mexican art is comparable to that of Vincent van Gogh on Impressionism. Rivera was a driving factor in the development of Mexican national art throughout his life. One of his most lasting legacies, however, was his influence on American perceptions of public art. Rivera supplied the first inspiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt\’s WPA initiative by portraying pictures from everyday life on public buildings. Many of the hundreds of American artists who found work via the WPA went on to address political issues that Rivera had originally raised publicly. His distinctive painting technique, as well as the intensity of his ideas, continue to be key influences on American painting.

11 lesser-known facts about Diego Rivera

1. Rivera had numerous marriages, affairs, and children. His fourth wife was fellow Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, with whom he had a volatile relationship that continued until her death.
2. While in Europe Diego Rivera became successful as a Cubist painter. The History of Mexico: Diego Rivera’s Murals at the National Palace 
3. Between 1929 and 1935, Diego Rivera frescoed one of his most famous murals “Epic of the Mexican People” on the wall of the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, depicting the history of his country from ancient times to the present, describing the numerous struggles of the Mexican people against dictators and hegemonies of other nations.
4. He illustrated Pablo Neruda\’s collection of poems \’Canto General\’. Cover page of Pablo Neruda\’s Canto General
5. He was in a relationship with Cristina, the sister of his third wife Frida Kahlo which led to their divorce in 1939.
6. His father built a makeshift art studio for him, provided him with art supplies and covered the walls with canvas to prevent him from drawing on the walls and furniture.
7. He was expelled from the academy for leading a student protest against the newly re-elected president of Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, who was known to be a tyrant. A poster of movie Cradle Will Rock
8. He has been portrayed on film in the movies “Cradle Will Rock” and “Freida”.
9. Rivera and Frida had similar interests. Both liked to involve with Marxism and radical politics. Both also played as a host for the Communist exile Leon Trotsky. Diego Rivera with Frida Kahlo
10. Rivera was the founder of the art style Mexicanidad.
11. Diego Rivera considered “religions to be a form of collective neurosis”. Diego Rivera’s Murals In San Francisco After the Rockefeller Center mural was destroyed in 1934, Diego Rivera recreated this version, named Man, Controller of the Universe, which is on display at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. The story of the original mural\’s creation and destruction is the focus of a Mexican Cultural Institute exhibition in Washington, D.C.

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