Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, Mexican (1886-1957) was born a twin in Guanajuato, Mexico. He was a gifted artist who started his career at a very early age. When he was ten years old, Rivera traveled to Mexico City to advance his passion for art at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts. Teodoro A. Dehesa, the governor of Veracruz, impressed with the young artist's talent, paved his way to Europe. Rivera studied first in Spain in 1907, where he befriended Pablo Picasso and many other famous artists. Two years later, he moved to Paris and witnessed the beginning of new schools of art that would be of great influence in his works such as cubism and post-impressionism. Invited by José Vasconcelos, in 1921 Rivera returned to Mexico to collaborate with the government's spnosored plan to educate the population and to reunify the country through the promotion of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution. In 1922, the muralist artist started work on his frescoes almost exlusively, completing a set of 128 paintings by 1928. Five years later, Rivera started one of his more renowned works, the mural on the Rockefeller Center. The infamous mural, "Man at the Crossroads" included a portrait of the Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin. The mural was later destroyed after Rivera's refusal to remove Lenin's portrait. As a member of the Mexican Communist Party, his art often reflected his political views. From 1945 to 1951, Diego Rivera worked on "From the Pre-Hispanic Civilization to the Conquest." Rivera was married to Angelina Beloff, Guadalupe Marín, Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón "Frida Kahlo," and Emma Hurtado. He died on Novermber 24 in Mexico City due to heart failure in 1957.