Diego Rivera

DIEGO RIVERA (Mexico, 1886- 1957).
"Portrait of Tehuana. 1938.
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper.
Attached certificate issued by Doña Guadalupe Rivera, daughter of Diego Rivera.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 36 x 26 cm; 60 x 51 cm (frame).
Diego Rivera, worked on numerous occasions the representation of women with Mexican features becoming an indispensable part of his own iconography. Since the ideal of woman was part of the popular culture of his country, which he defended so much with his painting. Being his source of inspiration and his models, the people who formed the deepest Mexico.
Born in Huanajuato in 1886, Diego Rivera came from a Creole family but his maternal grandmother was Indian. From a young age, he stood out for his drawing skills, which made him attend night classes at the academy when he was 10-11 years old. His father did not like it, he wanted him to be a military man but he wanted to be an artist. At the age of 12 he entered the San Carlos Academy in Mexico, where he received a traditional education at the end of the 19th century. Antonio Fabrés was one of his teachers, but he considers Jose María Velasco, a landscape painter, to be his master. In 1907, Rivera, encouraged by Dr. Atl and thanks to a scholarship given to him by the governor of Veracruz, in addition to obtaining money by selling his works in an exhibition promoted by Atl so that the students could sell their works, he left for Europe, arriving in Madrid, where he stayed for two years, 1907-1909. Recommended by Atl, he enters the workshop of the artist Eduardo Chicharro, portraitist and symbolist. During those years Rivera made many copies of works from the Prado Museum. He returns to Mexico in the spring of 1921. Vasconcelos hires him to paint murals. He returns alone, apparently because there was no money for more than a ticket, but it seems that the marriage was broken up. As a result of this trip, Rivera will never return to Paris. In addition, Rivera left another lover and a daughter in Paris. Rivera was appointed director of the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos. There he undertook a radical reform, turning the academy into a workshop, creating a rhythm of work that had much more to do with the Renaissance workshops, as the muralists did. Another thing is that the students themselves were self-managed, making it a right for the students to choose their teachers, the staff of the center and the method of work. There was strong opposition from conservative sectors such as teachers, artists and students, and he had to resign as director of the academy. In these years he was also expelled from the communist party. So from 1930 he began to look to North America where he already had a reputation. Rivera makes a first incursion in 1930 to North America, with a series of commissions. He is called again by the minister to finish with projects he had half finished and in 1932 he returns to America where he consolidates his artistic career.