Diego Rivera

1. Diego Rivera "An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core..." "I'm Diego and I paint what I see."~ Diego Rivera

2. Important Dates And Travels 1886: Born José Diego María and twin brother José Carlos María Rivera Barrientos born in Guanajuato, Mexico. (Jose Carlos dies in 1888.) 1892: Family moves to Mexico City. 1898-1905: Rivera attends Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City. 1906: Exhibits 26 works at the annual exhibition of the San Carlos Academy. 1907: Begins 14-year stay in Europe. 1909: Meets Russian artist Angelina Beloff in Brussels, who later becomes his common-law wife. 1910: Exhibits at Society of Independent Artists in Paris. Returns to Mexico and exhibits at San Carlos Academy in November. Witnesses outbreak of Mexican Revolution (1910-20). 1911: Returns to Paris. 1913: Paints first Cubist works and exhibits at Autumn Salon. 1914: First one-man exhibition in Paris at BertheWeill Gallery. Travels to Barcelona and Madrid. 1915: Returns to Paris and begins relationship with Russian artist Marevna Vorobyov-Stebelska. 1916: Exhibits at the Modern Gallery, New York. Son Diego Jr. born to Angelina Beloff. 1917: Son Diego dies. Rivera breaks with Picasso and Cubists in Paris. 1919: Meets David Alfaro Siqueiros and discusses need for change in Mexican art. Daughter Marika born in Paris to Marevna Vorobyov-Stebelska. 1920: Rivera travels through Italy. 1921: Rivera returns to Mexico. 1922: Begins his first mural, in the Simón Bolívar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School. Marries Guadalupe Marin. Co-founds the Union of Revolutionary Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists and joins the Mexican Communist Party. 1923: Begins frescoes in the Ministry of Education (SEP). 1924: Daughter Guadalupe born. 1925: Begins to paint frescoes at National School of Agriculture at Chapingo. Flower Day included in Pan American exhibition at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; wins purchase prize. 1927: Invited to Soviet Union in the Autumn to take part in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Daughter Ruth born. 1928: On his return from Soviet Union, separates from Lupe Marín. Finishes work in SEP building and at Chapingo. 1929: Marries Frida Kahlo. Begins to paint walls in National Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. Appointed director of upper school of San Carlos Academy of Art, though soon dismissed after proposing numerous curriculum changes. Expelled from the Mexican Communist Party.

3. More Dates and Travels 1930-31: Paints mural in Luncheon Club of San Francisco Pacific Stock Exchange and another in California School of Fine Arts. Newly opened Museum of Modern Art in New York gives him a large retrospective that sets a new attendance record for the museum. 1932: Begins murals in Detroit Institute of Arts. 1933: Begins to paint a mural at Rockefeller Center in New York, that results in suspension of project and complete destruction of unfinished wallpainting. Rivera and Kahlo return to Mexico to new residence in San Angel. 1934: Executes the mural originally planned for Rockefeller Center in new form in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. 1935: Completes murals in stairwell of National Palace, left unfinished since 1930. 1937: Receives exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova 1938: André Breton stays with Rivera during his visit to Mexico. 1939: Trotsky and Rivera part ways after many disputes. Rivera and Kahlo separate. 1940: Paints ten murals in San Francisco for the Golden Gate International Exposition, and while in San Francisco marries Frida Kahlo for the second time. Unjustly implicated in assassination of Trotsky. 1946: Large-size mural commissioned for new Hotel del Prado in Mexico City. 1947: With José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, forms the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes Commission for Mural Painting. 1949: 50th anniversary of his career marked by comprehensive exhibition organized by INBA at Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. 1950: Awarded National Prize for Plastic Arts. 1954: Takes part with Frida Kahlo in a solidarity rally for government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. Kahlo dies in July. In September, his application to rejoin Mexican Communist Party is accepted. 1955: Marries publisher Emma Hurtado in July. Diagnosed with cancer and takes a trip to Soviet Union at end of year to undergo medical treatment for the cancer. 1956: Returns to Mexico, recuperating at home of friend Dolores Olmedo. National homage on occasion of Rivera's 70th birthday. 1957: Dies of heart attack on November 24.

4. Why Is He Famous? Diego Rivera is considered the father of Mexican mural art and the father of modern political art in Mexico along with Guadalupe Posada. Posada started breaking the wall between the government and the masses by doing political satire in his drawings. Diego reinterpreted Mexican history from a revolutionary and nationalistic point of view. Not only did Diego expressed powerful ideas in his murals, but he also applied the tools he learned with modernist techniques. And as Kalstron explains:"More than any other artist, Diego Rivera provided models for incorporating cultural past and ethnic identity into an alternative modernist vision, one that provided for a responsible fusion of the social and the aesthetic". Diego was an important personality in the art world of the 20th century and his thoughts were well respected in the art community. He was an innovator in expressing his ideals unifying art and politics.