We spent our final day in Mexico City at the Palacio des Belles Artes at the Diego Rivera exhibit. Rivera is probably Mexico’s best known artist and certainly its most prolific. The exhibit consisted of murals which could be transported, sketches for many which could not, several murals painted specially for the Palacio, and two wonderful mosaics. Much of his work depicts Mexico’s history from the first inhabitants to the Spanish conquest and into the post-revolutionary period. His murals are heroic, vibrant, colorful and very detailed.
After independence he became involved with the problems of the peasants and like many other artists in the 20s and 30s he gravitated towards socialism. That’s when his troubles began. Lenin, Trotsky, et al who often appeared in Rivera’s works were not popular personas in Mexico. A mural he was commissioned to paint at Rockefeller Plaza in New York was painted over because of its left-wing message and General Motors withdrew their commission for a mural at the Chicago World’s Fair as a result.
Diego Rivera was twice married to Frieda Kahlo, another leftist painter although she didn’t paint as much as Diego and while her work was little appreciated during her life time, it has become the most valued of any Mexican artist including her husband.
As we were leaving we ran into a demonstration against some government official or other. A few hundred protestors, naked except for a poster of their enemy tied over their genitals, danced to a drum and disrupted traffic while a few totally nude women collected for the cause. Considering Diego Rivera’s politics the location most likely wasn’t accidental.
