Rivera

Rivera

<div id="description_text_headlines" class="margin-bottom"><strong>Rebel with a cause: A revolutionary spirit in modern art</strong></div> <div class="margin-bottom"> </div> <div class="description_text"> <div id="description_text" class="margin-bottom"><strong>Diego Rivera (1886–1957)</strong> is a loud presence on the art historical stage. With devout political principles and a turbulent romantic history, he was at once husband and paladin of Frida Kahlo, advocate and adversary of Stalin's Soviet Union, and liberator and traitor of Leon Trotsky.<br /><br />Vibrant, graphic, and often monumental, Rivera's paintings carry the same live political and passionate charge as his personal biography. Fusing European influences such as Cubism with a socialist ideology and an <strong>exaltation of Mexico's indigenous and popular heritage</strong>, he created a new iconography for art history and for his country. He became one of the most important figures in the <strong>Mexican mural movement</strong> and won international acclaim for his public wall paintings, in which he presented a <strong>utopian yet accessible vision of a post-revolutionary Mexico</strong>. In 1931, Rivera was the <strong>subject of MoMA's second ever monographic exhibition</strong>.<br /><br />This book explores the <strong>unique blend of influence and ideology</strong> which secure Rivera's place as both a unique and a universal painter, bound to the particular turbulent experience of early 20th century Mexico, and yet preoccupied with subjects such as <strong>revolution and class inequity</strong> which continue to speak to us today.</div> <div class="margin-bottom"> </div> <div id="series_text" class="margin-bottom"><strong>About the Series:</strong><br />Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features: <ul> <li>a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance</li> <li>a concise biography</li> <li>approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions</li> </ul> </div> </div>