Biography of Diego Rivera

(1886/12/08 - 1957/11/24)

Diego Rivera
Diego Maria of the Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera and Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez
Mexican painter

He was born on December 8, 1886, with its twin Carlos Maria in Guanajuato.
Son of Diego Rivera and Maria the Pilar Barrientos. A year and a half after birth, died his brother, while he suffered from rickets.
In 1892 he moved to the City of Mexico with his family.
Study at the Academy of San Carlos and in the workshop of engraver José Guadalupe Posada, whose influence was decisive. At the Academy from 1896 to 1902, where he took classes with Santiago Rebull, Salomé Pina, Félix Parra, José María Velasco , and Antonio Fabrés, which abandoned at the age of 16 because - in his own words - to, the teaching of painting system was only addressed to the faithful reproduction of the objects. From 1907 to 1921 he studied painting in Europe.
In 1921 he returned to Mexico where he participated in the revival of mural painting started by artists and sponsored by the Government. His first mural in Mexico was "the creation" (1922), aimed at the anfiteatro Simón Bolívar of the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria. That same year, the painter was one of the organizers of the Union of technical workers and plastics. Rivera was also one of the founders of the Mexican Communist Party. He painted large frescoes on the history and society of his country in the ceilings and walls of public buildings. From 1923 to 1926 he made murals in fresco of the Secretary of education in the city of Mexico, but his masterpiece is the fertile Earth (1927) for the National School of agriculture from Chapingo, where represents the biological development of the man and his conquest of nature. He painted murals in the Palacio de Cortes, Cuernavaca (1930) and the Ministry of health.
The first mate and renowned lover of Diego Rivera was the Russian emigrant artist Angelina Belloff, with whom he fathered a son who died shortly after. Some time later was born their first daughter, Marika, product of the love affairs he had with the Russian painter, Marievna Vorobiev-Stebelsca. The second wife of Diego was Guadalupe Marín, model of his portraits and whom he married in the Church of San Miguel in the city of Guadalajara. Of this relationship were born two children: Ruth and Guadalupe. In addition, another Diego muses was Tina Moddotti, who appears on murals as "sleeping land", "germination" and "the fruits of the Earth", among others. They maintained a love affair that lasted until 1927. On August 21, 1929, Diego Rivera married Frida Kahlo, 24 years younger than him. Their relationship was very open and strange, because both were allowed to have sex outside of marriage. They divorced in 1940, but returned to get married after a year and this time the relationship lasted until her death, in 1954.
He exhibited and worked in the United States. his work there includes a mural (1932-1933) for the Institute of fine arts in Detroit and a cool, man at the crossroads (1933), responsible for the new RCA building at Rockefeller Center in New York, and destroyed shortly after its completion because it contained a portrait of Lenin. A year later, he played for the Palacio de Bellas Artes of Mexico. In 1935 he finished the frescoes for the monumental National Palace of the city of Mexico staircase, with their own interpretation of the history of his country. In the 1940's Diego Rivera painted two murals in the National Institute of Cardiology (1944), and another large mural for the Hotel del Prado, dream Mall (1947), of historical-critical issue.
He made his last works in mosaic of natural stones, such as those of the Stadium of the University of Mexico City , or Teatro Insurgentes. He bequeathed to Mexico an important collection of statues of various indigenous cultures, which installed in his House-Museum, the anahuacalli Museum, in the city of Mexico.
On July 29, 1955, almost a year after the death of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera married for the fourth time, Emma Hurtado, who was much younger than him and his friend for 10 years. She remained at his side until his death on November 24, 1957 in the City of Mexico.