Diego Rivera

After moving to Paris, Rivera met Angelina Beloff, an artist from the pre-Revolutionary Russian Empire. They married in 1911, and had a son, Diego (1916–1918), who died young. During this time, Rivera also had a relationship with painter Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska, who gave birth to a daughter named Marika Rivera in 1918 or 1919.^{[9][page needed]}

Rivera divorced Beloff and married Guadalupe Marín as his second wife in June 1922, after having returned to Mexico. They had two daughters together: Ruth and Guadalupe.

He was still married when he met art student Frida Kahlo in Mexico. They began a passionate affair and, after he divorced Marín, Rivera married Kahlo on August 21, 1929. He was 42 and she was 22. Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper resulted in divorce in 1939, but they remarried December 8, 1940, in San Francisco, California.

A year after Kahlo's death, on July 29, 1955, Rivera married Emma Hurtado, his agent since 1946.

In his later years Rivera lived in the United States and Mexico. Rivera died on November 24, 1957, at the age of 70. He was buried at the Panteón de Dolores in Mexico City.^[10]

Personal beliefs

Rivera was an

In those years, some prominent young painters were experimenting with an art form that would later be known as Cubism, a movement led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. From 1913 to 1917, Rivera enthusiastically embraced this new style.^[14] Around 1917, inspired by Paul Cézanne's paintings, Rivera shifted toward Post-Impressionism, using simple forms and large patches of vivid colors. His paintings began to attract attention, and he was able to display them at several exhibitions.

Rivera claimed in his autobiography that, while in Mexico in 1904, he engaged in cannibalism, pooling his money with others to "purchase cadavers from the city morgue" and particularly "relish[ing] women's brains in vinaigrette".^[15][16][17] This claim has been considered factually suspect^[18] or an elaborate lie.^[19] He wrote in his autobiography: "I believe that when man evolves a civilization higher than the mechanized but still primitive one he has now, the eating of human flesh will be sanctioned. For then man will have thrown off all of his superstitions and irrational taboos."^[20]

Career in Mexico

In 1920, urged by

In the autumn of 1922, Rivera participated in the founding of the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors, and later that year he joined the

Rivera painted murals in the main hall and corridor at the Chapingo Autonomous University of Agriculture (UACh). He also painted a fresco mural titled Tierra Fecundada^[31] (Fertile Land in English) in the university's chapel between 1923 and 1927. Fertile Land depicts the revolutionary struggles of Mexico's peasant (farmers) and working classes (industry) in part through the depiction of hammer and sickle joined by a star in the soffit of the chapel. In the mural, a "propagandist" points to another hammer and sickle. The mural features a woman with an ear of corn in each hand, which art critic Antonio Rodriguez describes as evocative of the Aztec goddess of maize in his book Canto a la Tierra: Los murales de Diego Rivera en la Capilla de Chapingo.

The corpses of revolutionary heroes

The mural was slightly damaged in an earthquake, but has since been repaired and touched up, remaining in pristine form.^[citation needed]

Later years

In the autumn of 1927, Rivera went to Moscow, Soviet Union, having accepted a government invitation to take part in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. The following year, while still in the Soviet Union, he met American Alfred H. Barr Jr., who would soon become Rivera's friend and patron. Barr was the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.^[33]

Although commissioned to paint a mural for the Red Army Club in Moscow, in 1928 Rivera was ordered by authorities to leave the country because, he suspected, of "resentment on the part of certain Soviet artists."^[34] He returned to Mexico.

In 1929, following the assassination of former president Álvaro Obregón the previous year, the government suppressed the Mexican Communist Party. That year Rivera was expelled from the party because of his suspected Trotskyite sympathies. In addition, observers noted that his 1928 mural In the Arsenal includes the figures of communists Tina Modotti, Cuban Julio Antonio Mella, and Italian Vittorio Vidali. After Mella was murdered in January 1929, allegedly by Stalinist assassin Vidali, Rivera was accused of having had advance knowledge of a planned attack.

After divorcing his third wife, Guadalupe (Lupe) Marin, Rivera married the much younger Frida Kahlo in August 1929. They had met when she was a student, and she was 22 years old when they married; Rivera was 42.

Also in 1929, American journalist Ernestine Evans's book The Frescoes of Diego Rivera, was published in New York City; it was the first English-language book on the artist. In December, Rivera accepted a commission from the American Ambassador to Mexico to paint murals in the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca, where the US had a consulate.^[35]

In September 1930, Rivera accepted a commission by architect Timothy L. Pflueger for two works related to his design projects in San Francisco. Rivera and Kahlo went to the city in November. Rivera painted a mural for the City Club of the San Francisco Stock Exchange for US$2,500.^[36] He also completed a fresco for the California School of Fine Art, a work that was later relocated to what is now the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute.^[35]

During this period, Rivera and Kahlo worked and lived at the studio of

In November 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City mounted a retrospective exhibition of Rivera's work; Kahlo attended with him.^[37]

Between 1932 and 1933, Rivera completed a major commission: twenty-seven fresco panels, entitled Detroit Industry, on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Part of the cost was paid by Edsel Ford, scion of the entrepreneur.

During the McCarthyism of the 1950s, a large sign was placed in the courtyard defending the artistic merit of the murals while attacking his politics as "detestable."^[33]

His mural

On June 5, 1940, invited again by Pflueger, Rivera returned for the last time to the United States to paint a ten-panel mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. His work, Pan American Unity was completed November 29, 1940. Rivera painted in front of attendees at the Exposition, which had already opened. He received US$1,000 per month and US$1,000 for travel expenses.^[36] The mural includes representations of two of Pflueger's architectural works, and portraits of Rivera's wife, Frida Kahlo, woodcarver Dudley C. Carter, and actress Paulette Goddard. She is shown holding Rivera's hand as they plant a white tree together.^[36] Rivera's assistants on the mural included Thelma Johnson Streat, a pioneer African-American artist, dancer, and textile designer. The mural and its archives are now held by City College of San Francisco.^[42][43]

In 1946-47, Rivera painted A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park, a fresco that featured a fully elaborated figure of La Calavera Catrina. This character, which was created by José Guadalupe Posada, originally consisted of a print depicting the head and shoulders of a skeletal woman in a big hat. Rivera endowed his Catrina figure with indigenous features and thus transformed her into a nationalist icon. Catrina is the most common image associated with Day of the Dead.^[44]

Membership in AMORC

In 1926, Rivera became a member of AMORC, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, an occult organization founded by American occultist Harvey Spencer Lewis. In 1926, Rivera was among the founders of AMORC's Mexico City lodge, called Quetzalcoatl after an ancient indigenous god. He painted an image of Quetzalcoatl for the local temple.^[45]

In 1954, Rivera tried to be readmitted into the Mexican Communist Party. He had been expelled in part because of his support of

Diego Rivera has been portrayed in several films. He was played by Rubén Blades in Cradle Will Rock (1999), by Alfred Molina in Frida (2002), and (in a brief appearance) by José Montini in Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015).

Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Lacuna features Rivera, Kahlo, and Leon Trotsky as major characters.

Gallery

Paintings

• 
  Self-portrait with Broad-Brimmed Hat, 1907, 84.5 × 61.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  Avila Morning (The Ambles Valley), 1908, 97 × 123 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  Street in Ávila (Ávila Landscape), 1908, 129 × 141 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  El Picador, 1909, 177 × 113 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  The House on the Bridge, 1909, 147 × 121 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  After the Storm (The Grounded Ship), 1910, 120.7 × 146.7 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  Landscape, 1911. Frida Kahlo Museum.
• 
  Portrait of Adolfo Best Maugard, 1913, 227.5 × 161.5 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  Adoration of the Virgin and Child, 1912–13, oil and encaustic on canvas, 150 × 120 cm, private collection
• 
  The Sun Breaking through the Mist, 1913, 83.5 × 59 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  The Woman at the Well, 1913, 145 × 125 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  The Alarm Clock, 1914. Frida Kahlo Museum
• 
  Two Women (Dos Mujeres, Portrait of Angelina Beloff and Maria Dolores Bastian), 1914, 197.5 × 161.3 cm.

  Arkansas Arts Center
• 
  Portrait de Messieurs Kawashima et Foujita, 1914, oil and collage on canvas, 78.5 × 74 cm. Private collection
• 
  Young Man with a Fountain Pen, 1914, 79.5 × 63.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  El Rastro, 1915, 27.5 × 38.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna, 1915, 109.6 × 90.2 cm. Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires
• 
  Zapata-style Landscape, 1915, 145 × 125 cm. Museo Nacional de Arte
• 
  Portrait of Marevna, c.1915, 145.7 × 112.7 cm. Art Institute of Chicago
• 
  Seated Woman (Women with the Body of a Guitar), 1915–16. Frida Kahlo Museum
• 
  Urban Landscape, 1916. Frida Kahlo Museum
• 
  Still Life with Tulips (Naturaleza Muerta con Tulipanes), 1916, oil on canvas, 67.8 × 53.7 cm
• 
  Knife and Fruit in Front of the Window, 1917, 91.8 × 92.4 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  Still Life with Utensils, 1917, 71 × 54 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  The Mathematician, 1919, 115.5 × 80.5 cm. Museo Dolores Olmedo
• 
  Maternidad, Angelina y el niño Diego (Motherhood, Angelina and the Child Diego), c. August 1916, oil on canvas, 134.5 × 88.5 cm, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil. This work forms part of Rivera's Crystal Cubist period

Murals

• 
  Mural of exploitation of Mexico by Spanish conquistadores, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City (1929–1945)
• 
  Mural of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City
• 
  Mural of the Aztec market of

  Tlatelolco

  , Palacio Nacional, Mexico City
• 
  Mural showing Aztec production of gold, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City
• 
  Mural showing Totonaca celebrations and ceremonies, Palacio Nacional, Mexico City
• 
  Detail of Man, Controller of the Universe, fresco at Palacio de Bellas Artes showing Leon Trotsky, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx
• 
  Detail of Man, Controller of the Universe, fresco at Palacio de Bellas Artes showing Vladimir Lenin
• 
  Mural (detail) Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central in Mexico City, featuring Rivera and Frida Kahlo standing by La Calavera Catrina (width: 15.6 m)
• 
  Mural at the National Palace, Mexico City
• 
  Diego Rivera's mural The History of Mexico at the National Palace in Mexico City
• 
  Detail of The History of Mexico showing betrayed revolution at Palacio Nacional, Mexico City
• 
  Recreation of

  Man, Controller of the Universe

  ), originally created in 1934 (detail)
• 
  View of the Murals by Diego Rivera in the Palacio Nacional
• 
  Detroit Industry, North Wall, 1932–33. Detroit Institute of Arts
• 
  Detroit Industry, South Wall, 1932–33. Detroit Institute of Arts

Sculptures

• 
  Tlaloc Fountain in Cárcamo de Dolores

  , Mexico City (1951)
• 
  3D mural of Quetzalcóatl in the Exekatlkalli (Casa de los Vientos) in Acapulco, Guerrero (1957)

See also

• List of works by Diego Rivera
• Anahuacalli Museum
• Crystal Cubism
• Elaine Hamilton-O'Neal
• Jewish Culture
• Gabriel Bracho, Venezuelan muralist
• Cárcamo de Dolores
• Jacobo Arbenz
  .
• María Izquierdo