Diego Rivera's Influence On Modern Mexico

3071 Words13 Pages
Modern Mexico Diego Rivera The life of Diego Rivera is a very interesting because of the different experiences and the influence he had on the people. During his life he would meet many people that would influence in the art and his life. People like Jorge Posada and Chicharro majorly influence him and molded him to the painter he is. In December of 1886 in Guanajuato Diego Rivera was born. During his child hood he wanted to know everything. He wanted to be a painter, engineer and a general, so he was put into military school but eventually everyday from school he would cry coming back home because he hated it (Fabulous life of Diego Rivera pg 29-30). At age of ten Diego Rivera decided to become an artist and by the age of eleven…show more content…
At this time the new minister of public education was Jose Vasconcelos. He initiated a national program of popular education which included adding mural art to public buildings. In November of 1921, he offered Rivera an indoor wall at the National Preparatory School (Fabulous life Diego Rivera pg 133). Just before Rivera began working on his first mural, he and other artists traveled to the Yucatan to study Mayan ruins at Uxmal and Chichen Itza. Rivera took many of sketches of the landscape the huts and the underground rivers where he was amazed of such beauty he saw and he made numerous sketches of the indigenous people. After spending a year working to create the mural on a surface of thousand square feet, he called the mural Creation. The mural contained figures that were over twelve feet high. These figures were the Amazonian women of the south. There were the women he did sketches on during his trip to the Yucatán and Tehuantepec peninsula. However, Rivera was unhappy with the work and embarrass because he felt that his art was too Italian in technique (The Fabulous life of Diego rivera pg 135) (Mexican Painters pg 45). The art of the women was his first step recognizing social problems of Mexico. In spite of how Rivera felt, the mural caused great excitement. The Mexican art movement was really underway and Rivera and at the same time David Siqueiros and Jose Orozco, among others, had been awarded other walls in the Preparatory School. Almost every painter in Mexico was being underwritten by the Education Department. It was the beginning of a “Mexican Renaissance”. Word began to spread throughout the continent and many painters from other countries came to Mexico to study and work in the Mexican art movement. They came to paint walls and be a part of the great fresco revival. Isamu Noquchi, Pablo O’Higgins and

More about Diego Rivera's Influence On Modern Mexico

Open Document