The painter can and must abstract from many details in creating his painting. Every good composition is above all a work of abstraction. All good painters know this. But the painter cannot dispense with subjects altogether without his work suffering impoverishment – Diego Rivera
Google honors Diego Rivera, Mexico’s popular painter on his 125th birthday by dedicating a Google Doodle on its Google search homepage. Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato on December 8th, 1886. At the age of 10, Diego started showing interest in art and painting. He studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. The governor of the State of Veracruz – Teodoro A. Dehesa Méndez sponsored him to continue his studies in Europe.
He moved to Europe in 1907 where he studied Post-Impressionism, since he was inspired by Paul Cézanne. Diego’s paintings began to attract people, and he managed to display them at several exhibitions.
Diego is famously known for his paintings. His large wall works in fresco helped in the establishment of the Mexican Mural Movement in Mexican art. Diego Rivera’s most popular art, arguably, is the Man at the Crossroadsor the Man, Controller of the Universein New York City. The mural was removed after a controversy erupted in the press because the painting contained Vladimir Lenin, the famous Russian communist.
Rivera was an atheist. One of his murals called “Dreams of a Sunday in the Alameda” has an inscription which read, “God does not exist”. This caused an outbreak of public anger; however, Rivera refused to remove the inscription. The painting was kept in dark for 9 years, until Rivera finally agreed to remove the inscription. He stated: “To affirm ‘God does not exist’, I do not have to hide behind Don Ignacio RamÃrez; I am an atheist and I consider religions to be a form of collective neurosis.”
In 1933, Diego came back to Mexico, and repainted the Man at the Crossroads. Almost seven years later, Diego Rivera returned to United States to paint the Pan American Unity,a ten-panel mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco.
Diego Rivera died on November 24, 1957.
