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Arts & Entertainment

Rivera's Art Still Resonates Many Years Later

Artist's frescoes on view at the Museum of Modern Art almost a century after first exhibition.

Diego Rivera was a man of varied passions. He was a fervent Mexican Communist, a husband four-times over, one of which was with the equally controversial Frieda Kahlo. A self-avowed atheist, and also a revolutionary through his art, Rivera made a huge splash in the early 20th Century via an exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53rd St, New York. Almost a century later, Rivera returns in spirit to MoMA in a new exhibition celebrating work he made specifically for the museum, as well as the materials he compiled to compose the works–sketches, thumbnails and notes. It all comes together in Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art, on display until May 14.

The works are frescoes, which refers generally to murals painted on plaster on walls, ceilings or any other type of flat surface. The word "fresco" comes from the Italian word "affresca," from the Latin for "fresh.” Rivera was one of the major players in the Mexican muralism movement which took place primarily from the 1920s to the 1960s, but was a highly influential force for later generations of Mexican artists. Through art, many were able to say things they might not ordinarily express verbally. Mexican muralism's political undertones, mostly of post-revolutionary Mexican content and Marxist ideas, meant that these works, while taken as artistic statement, also stood as a visual protest very often.

Diego Rivera was the subject of MoMA’s second one-man biographical exhibition (the first was Henri Matisse), carried off between December 1931 into January 1932. The difficulty in making this happen was not necessarily because of Rivera's politics or his relative distance from New York, but because his medium as a muralist meant that his art could not be readily transported. Therefore, MoMA brought Rivera to New York six weeks before the exhibition’s opening and gave him studio space within the Museum.

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Anna Indych-López, Ph.D., is an associate professor of art history at The City College of New York and The Graduate Center/CUNY. She is the author of "Muralism without Walls: Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the United States, 1927-1940" as well a co-author of "Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art" (with Leah Dickerman), the companion to this very exhibition.

When asked what visitors will learn about Diego Rivera and his work, Indych-Lopez said, “The exhibition showcases not only the compelling social issues visualized by artists like Rivera and his fellow muralists but also brings to light the sophisticated aesthetics they employed and the broader intellectual currents with which they engaged in order to create a truly international and politicized form of modernism that could speak to the masses. Visitors can also learn how the 1930s was a decade filled with struggles but that artists found innovative and compelling means to engage with various publics and their concerns.”

Rivera produced five “portable murals" that depicted revolution and class inequity within Mexico. After the opening, to great publicity, Rivera added three more murals, now taking on New York subjects through monumental images of the urban working class and the social stratification of the city during the Great Depression. All eight were on display for the rest of the show’s run. Now they’re together again and waiting for you, making MoMA our “Day Tripper” pick of the week.

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DAY TRIPPER DIGEST

Estimated Travel Time: 52 minutes

Why it’s Worth the Trip:  With the national conversation drifting toward the message of “The 99 percent,” the art of Diego Rivera shares similar concerns and traits. A visit to MoMA for this exhibition is a wonderful conversation-starter, both visually impressive and thought-provoking.

How to Get There from Here: Detailed driving directions.

You’ll Probably Get Hungry: Lucky for you that there are plenty of restaurants nearby. Get your fish fresh from McCormick & Schmick’s, experience French bistro cuisine from Benoit New York, have a cocktail at Fireside, or have something at Burger Heaven (what that may be, we have no idea).    

While you’re in the Area: You might want to make sure you had some extra funds on hand if you plan to visit the nearby Strawberry clothes store, handbag designers Fendi, and top designer Ferragamo. If you’re trying to not bust the budget, take in a film after MoMA at Clearview Cinemas. If you’re done with the shopping scene, take the kids to the Sony Wonder Technology Lab instead, and perhaps take a short walk down to 30 Rock for the NBC Studio Tour.   

The subject matter indicative of Rivera’s work seems profoundly current in light of "Occupy" movements that have sprung up throughout the country. Indych-Lopez said that people were hungry for that message during the original exhibit’s opening as well.

“The exhibit was a success in terms of attendance. Viewers flocked to see the works by Rivera and the exhibition broke attendance records," Indych-Lopez said. "As I discuss in my book "Muralism without Walls: Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the United States, 1927-1940," Rivera’s politics did not upset critics. Rivera had an international reputation by that time and U.S. critics were aware of his particular form of public mural art. In terms of the reviews in the press (there are no extant viewer exit surveys, so we can only gauge the reception according to newspaper accounts), critics expected to see politicized works that deal with themes of social justice. Several critics took note of the violent and socially-engaged themes Rivera tackled and most concentrated on the Mexican-themed frescoes because of their novel subject matter for U.S. audiences.”

As for audiences of the moment, Rivera remains a distinct and powerful voice through the art he left behind.

“The issues of labor unrest, revolution, and class inequities monumentalized by Rivera have never gone away but are particularly poignant at the moment and resonate greatly with audiences today concerned with the state of current world affairs,” Indych-Lopez said.

This exhibition brings together key works made for Rivera’s 1931 exhibition, presenting them at MoMA for the first time in nearly 80 years. Along with mural panels, the show will include full-scale drawings, smaller working drawings, archival materials related to the commission and production of these works, and designs for Rivera’s famous Rockefeller Center mural, which he also produced while he was working at the Museum. The murals included are "Indian Warrior," "Sugar Cane," "Liberation of the Peon," "Agrarian Leader Zapata," "The Uprising," and his New York subjects "Pneumatic Drilling," "Electric Power," and "Frozen Assets."

For more information, visit www.MoMA.org

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