The name of the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (full name Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez) is most often associated with the story of his difficult relationship with Frida Kahlo. However, besides this, there were many dramatic moments in his life related to creativity, political beliefs and other women. Rivera was a major figure in the art world in every sense of the word. Possessor of a unique charisma with the self-explanatory nickname “cannibal,” he instantly attracted the attention of people wherever he appeared. Diego loved to embody myths in his work, as well as to fill his biography with them during his lifetime.
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Rivera and painting
Even the birth of the future artist was quite dramatic. He was one of twins whose mother Maria nearly bled to death at birth. Besides this, Diego was on the verge of life and death, but turned out to be tenacious. And from his twin brother Carlos died at the age of two. More than three years old, Rivera began to show interest in drawing. And straight to the wall painting, from which the decoration of his family’s house was damaged. The parents found a personal solution by covering all the walls of one of the rooms with canvases, so that the little painter had a free hand.
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Mexico City, Diego received a grant that allowed him to travel to Europe in 1907. There he was able to see with his own eyes half of his idols - Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin and other artists. He lived in Spain, France and Italy and returned to his homeland only after 14 years. During this time, he went through a period of fascination with Cubism, but he was embarrassed by the fact that his paintings were liked only by people from the circle of educated intellectuals. Diego believed that his art should touch the hearts of the broad masses, especially the working population.
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An active supporter of the revolution in his native Mexico, after the October Revolution in Russia, the artist finally abandoned cubism and became interested in the ideas of a realistic depiction of reality. And during a visit to Italy in 1920 and acquaintance with the frescoes of the Quattrocento, he finally found inspiration to translate his socialist aspirations into creativity. Monumental painting became the most suitable means of embodying revolutionary ideals.
After returning to Mexico in 1921, there was no shortage of government commissions to paint public buildings, and Rivera quickly became one of the most sought-after artists. His signature style was epic, multi-figure narratives that simultaneously coexisted modern political ideas with the historical and cultural heritage of Mexico's indigenous population.
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Rivera and the USSR
The artist was a committed communist and in 1922 became a member of the Communist Party of Mexico. In 1927, he was invited to the Tipi Union to celebrate the first anniversary of the October Revolution. At first, everything went smoothly: Rivera gave lectures on the art of Latin America and even became one of the founders of the artistic association «October». He received an order to create a fresco in the Central House of the Red Army and paint a portrait of Stalin, but something went wrong. The artist was suspected of anti-Soviet politics and expelled from the state.
More in Mexico Rivera met Vladimir Mayakovsky. The poet came as part of a cultural exchange program between the countries in 1925, and the artist personally greeted him from the train upon his arrival in Mexico City. During the three-week visit, they met every day: Diego introduced the guest to local history and culture, showed his frescoes and introduced him to friends. Mayakovsky recalled: “Diego turned out to be huge, with a good liveliness, a broad face, and always smiling. He tells, mixing in Russian words (Diego understands Russian perfectly), thousands of interesting things, but before telling the story he warns: “Please note, and my wife confirms that I’m lying about half of everything I’ve said.”
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During his stay in the USSR, the artist also met with Mayakovsky several times, including in the house of Laurie and Osip Brikov. He described the evening spent with them: «In those days, one very cold evening, Mayakovsky invited us to his house… It was hot there, like an oven, and the enthusiasm of those who had the joy and honor of enjoying the hospitality of a genius really burned there. There were a lot of us in his house… On the evening in question, both people who were already famous then and people who became famous later came to Mayakovsky. Among the first was Theodore Dreiser, author of “An American Tragedy.” Judging by the style, Rivera had not only an artistic, but also a poetic gift.
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The artist visited the USSR for the second time many years later, in 1955. Remembering his friendship with the poet, from the employees of the State Library and Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky turned to Rivera with a request to paint his portrait. Diego signed his drawing: “This is how I remember Mayakovsky in Mexico.”
Rivera and the USA
The cultural upsurge in post-revolutionary Mexico attracted the attention of intellectuals from Europe and the United States, including artists and art lovers. By the late 1920s, Rivera's slaves were in great demand in America. He received numerous orders for both easel painting and monumental painting. He completed three murals in San Francisco, where he had a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Created costumes and scenery for the ballet «Horsepower» in Philadelphia.
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The artist designed the central courtyard of the Art Institute in Detroit. He worked on frescoes at the World's Fair in Chicago at the invitation of General Mfromors, as well as at Rockefeller Center and the New Workers' School in New York.
There was a scandal. While working on the painting «Man at the Crossroads» at Rockefeller Center in 1933, Rivera used a portrait of Lenin as an image of one of the acting characters. He rejected the customer’s request to remove him from the fresco, and for this reason, a year later, the work was destroyed, and the artist was left without a fee.
A few years later, Diego Rivera recreated the fresco under the new title “The Man Who Controls the Universe.” But in the mural at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, in addition to Lenin, he depicted Leon Trotsky. After granting political asylum to the Russian revolutionary in Mexico, Rivera received him at the house of Frida Kahlo's parents, where Trotsky lived for some time with his wife Natalya Sedova.
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In addition, a series of murals in Detroit was under threat of destruction, which was criticized for the use of frightening industrial images and their dissonance with the museum space. The artist admired new technologies and achievements of industrialization, which was reflected in his works. Rivera was in demand in the United States until the early 1940s, when interest in realism was gradually replaced by a growing popularity in avant-garde styles. Artists from Europe who were hiding from the Nazi threat by crossing the Atlantic Ocean brought Cubism, Dada and Surrealism to America.
Rivera's last work in the United States was the large-scale «Pan-American Unity» in 1940. He worked on the mural in front of visitors to the International Exhibition «Evil Thieves» in San Francisco. With the help of local artists, he depicted scenes from the past, present and future of North America. After the exhibition ended, the mural, measuring 6.7 by 22.6 meters and weighing more than 27 tons, was moved to the campus of the City College of San Francisco. This was made possible because Rivera painted it not on a wall, but on ten cement panels with a steel frame. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the installation of the work was postponed and completed only 20 years later. In 2021, the college began construction of a new Arts Center, where it plans to move the mural due to its location. And until 2023 «Pan-American Unity» moved to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where everyone has the right to see it.
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Rivera and women
The owner of not the most attractive appearance, Rivera was nevertheless a real magnet for the opposite sex. He was married five times (twice to Frida Kahlo). His chosen ones were extraordinary representatives of creative professions: artists and writers. Diego met his first wife, Russian artist Angelina Belova, in Paris.
The couple married in 1911 and had a son four years later. He lived only 14 months, unable to recover from a lung infection. After the outbreak of the First World War, Angelina has to take on any job so that Rivera has the prospect of painting. At the same time, she was aware of his affair with another Russian artist, Maria Vorobyova-Stebelskaya, known under the pseudonym Marevna. But feelings for her lover were stronger than jealousy and resentment.
Rivera was no more kind to his mistress. He broke up with her six months later and never officially recognized his daughter Marika, whom Marevna gave birth to from him. Despite this, the girl grew up with his father, under whom she became famous as a dancer and film actress. And in 1921, the artist’s marriage to Angelina came to an end. After the Mexican Revolution, he goes to Mexico at the invitation of the Minister of Education, and his wife has to stay in Paris due to the inability to pay for the trip across the ocean.
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For some time, Rivera even maintains relations at a distance and makes money transfers for Angelina in Paris. But then he meets the Mexican writer and model Marin Guadalupe and demands a divorce. In 1922, Diego married Marin, who bore him two daughters during seven years of marriage. But in fact, their marriage lasted only six years, because Rivera met a woman who would play a major role in his life.
Diego divorced Marin in 1928, and the following year the 42-year-old artist married 22-year-old Frida Kahlo.
In 1941, Sigmund Freud commissioned Diego and Frida to paint their own self-portraits. In the same year, Rivera painted a self-portrait, almost identical to the one he completed for Freud. But this time for a beautiful lady. The inscription in Spanish reads: «I painted my portrait for the beautiful and famous actress Irena Rich, in Santa Barbara, Southern California, in January 1941. Diego Rivera».
And on another self-portrait, dedicated to his daughter Ruth, he wrote: “To the grasshopper from this ugly face.” Rivera was ironic about his appearance. Because of his bulging eyes, he received the nicknames «Toad Artist» and «Grand Señor Toad». Sometimes he left a small drawing of this living creature on his letters and documents. Even on love notes: in this case, he depicted a fat toad holding a heart in its paws.
The marriage of two artists ceases to be languid almost from the very first days. When the artist starts an affair with tennis player Helen Moody in San Francisco, Frida begins an affair with the wife of one of his assistants, Christina Hastings. Over the years of their life together, they cheat on each other many times, competing in sophistication and even in a certain kind of cruelty.
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Diego manages to enter into a relationship with the artist's younger sister Christina. Frida leaves Diego for a while, but returns again a few months later. But she does not forget about the pain that her lover caused her. The artist takes revenge on him by having a relationship with Leon Trotsky, to whom they provided the option to live in her father’s house.
The relationship between the couple continues to deteriorate and they eventually divorce. But not for long: the next year the couple tied the knot again. Even though they still had big problems with fidelity, Rivera and Kahlo would be together until her death. Diego wrote: “July 13, 1954 was the most tragic day of my life. I lost my beloved Frida forever. Too late I realized that the most amazing part of my life was my love for Frida.
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According to legend, Frida found her husband's next wife and persuaded actress Maria Felix to join him after her death. Diego really did not remain a widower for long. A year later, he married writer and gallery owner Emma Furtado for the fifth and final time. But this marriage was not destined to last long: just two years later, the 70-year-old artist died from cancer. The artist is credited with saying that he longed to subject women to suffering, and especially those with whom he was madly in love. It looks like he remained true to himself to the end.
Author: Natalia Azarenko, Arthive