Custom Framed Diego Rivera Paintings, Posters and Art Prints
At Framed-Arts.com, we offer a broad selection of Diego Rivera paintings, posters, and art prints for custom framing, from Detroit Industry to Man at the Crossroads. The art works we feature can be browsed from our custom search page, while this page contains facts about Diego Rivera’s art work and life. Read on to find out information on Rivera, including a listing of museum collections of his work.

A Short Biography of Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera was born December 8, 1886, and became during his lifetime a world-famous Mexican painter. An active communist and husband to Frida Kahlo, Rivera's wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance. From 1922 to 1953, Rivera painted murals in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, Chapingo, Detroit, San Francisco, and New York City. In 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City made Rivera the subject of their second retrospective exhibition.

Early Life
Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato City, Guanajuato. At ten, Rivera began to study art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. Later, at the age of twenty-one, Rivera continued his art studies in Europe with the sponsorship of the governor of the State of Veracruz. While in Europe, he studied in Madrid, Spain, and Paris, France, His circle of close friends was captured for posterity by Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska in her painting "Homage to Friends from Montparnasse" (1962).

At that time, Paris was witness to the beginning of Cubism in paintings by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. From 1913 to 1917, Rivera embraced this new school of art. Around 1917, however, inspired by Paul Cézanne's work, Rivera shifted toward Post-Impressionism with simple forms and large patches of vivid colors. His new style began to attract attention, and he was able to display his paintings at several exhibitions.

Diego Rivera’s Art Work in Mexico
In 1920, Rivera left France to travel through Italy studying art, including Renaissance frescoes. Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 and became involved in a government-sponsored mural program. In January 1922, Rivera painted his first significant mural, Creation, in the Bolívar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. Later that same year, Rivera joined the Mexican Communist Party and participated in the founding of the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors. His fresco murals dealt with Mexican society and reflected the nation’s 1910 Revolution. Rivera developed his own style based on large, simplified figures and bold colors and a clear Aztec influence. However, Rivera's radical politics and his attacks on the church and clergy made him a controversial figure, even in communist circles.

Later Work Abroad
In the autumn of 1927, Rivera accepted an invitation to Moscow to take part in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. Commissioned to paint a mural for the Red Army Club in Moscow, he was ordered out of the Soviet Union in 1928 because of involvement in anti-Soviet politics, and returned to Mexico. Then, in 1929, he was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party. His 1928 mural In the Arsenal had been interpreted by some as evidence of Rivera's prior knowledge of the murder of Julio Antonio Mella, allegedly by Stalinist assassin Vittorio Vidale. In August of 1929, he married Frida Kahlo. Four months later, he accepted a commission from the American Ambassador to Mexico to paint murals in the Palace of Cortez in Cuernavaca.

In 1930, Rivera accepted an invitation to the United States, where he painted several significant works: a mural for the Stock Exchange and a fresco for the California School of Fine Art; a series of twenty-seven fresco panels entitled Detroit Industry on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts; and his retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Rivera’s mural Man at the Crossroads, begun in 1933 at the Rockefeller Center in New York City, was removed after the uproar that erupted in the press over the image it contained of Vladimir Lenin. As a result of the negative publicity, a further commission was cancelled to paint a mural for an exhibition at the Chicago World's Fair. In December 1933, Rivera returned to Mexico, and repainted Man at the Crossroads in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. This surviving version was called Man, Controller of the Universe. In 1940, Rivera returned to the United States one last time to paint a mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, Pan American Unity.

Personal Life
A notorious womanizer, Rivera fathered at least two illegitimate children by two different women. Angeline Beloff gave birth to his son, Diego, in 1916, while Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska gave birth to his daughter in 1918. Rivera married his first wife, Guadalupe Marín, in June 1922, and had two additional daughters with her. He was still married when he met Frida Kahlo, who was an art student at the time. They married on August 21, 1929; he was forty-two, she twenty-two. Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper led to their divorce in 1939, but they remarried a year later. After Kahlo's death, Rivera married Emma Hurtado, his agent, in 1955. He died on November 24, 1957.

Diego Rivera’s Art Work - Museum Collections
Rivera's art work is housed in public collections in the following museums: Arizona State University Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania, the DePaul University Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Harvard University Art Museums, the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Guilford College Art Gallery, the Hermitage Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Fundación Proa in Buenos Aires, Museu de Arte de São Paulo in Brazil, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Phoenix Art Museum, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Iran.

Diego Rivera Paintings, Posters and Art Prints from Framed-Arts.com

We hope this short Diego Rivera biography has provided insight into Rivera’s body of work. You can browse our selection of Diego Rivera art prints, paintings and posters by visiting our custom search page, or contact us with any questions. At Framed-Arts.com, we’re happy to help you find the perfect Diego Rivera print. Happy print shopping!