内容简介
In 1931, Diego Rivera was the subject of The Museum of ModernArt s second monographic exhibition, which set new attendancerecords in its five-week run. The Museum brought Rivera to New Yorksix weeks before the show s opening and gave him on-site studiospace. There he produced five "portable murals" --large blocks offrescoed plaster, slaked lime and wood that feature bold imagesdrawn from Mexican subject matter and address themes of revolutionand class inequity. After the opening, to great publicity, Riveraadded three more murals, now taking on New York subjects throughmonumental images of the urban working class and the city duringthe Great Depression. Published in conjunction with an exhibitionthat brings together key works made for Rivera s 1931 show, thiscatalogue casts the artist as a highly cosmopolitan figure whotraveled between Russia, Mexico and the United States and examinesthe intersection of artmaking and radical politics in the 1930s.Illustrated with reproductions of each panel as well as relatedpaintings, drawings, prints and documentary photographs, the book sessays investigate the international politics of muralism, Rivera shistory with MoMA, the iconography of the portable murals andtechnical aspects of the artist s working process.Diego Rivera(1886-1957) was a central figure in the development of Mexicanmuralism, an ambitious public art initiative intended to relayMexico s ideals after the Revolution (1910-1920). A highlycosmopolitan artist, Rivera had spent many years in Europe beforereturning to Mexico in 1921, and in 1927 he traveled to the SovietUnion where he met Alfred Barr, the soon-to-be founding director ofThe Museum of Modern Art, New York. Rivera s artistic celebritybenefitted from major commissions in the United States, includingmurals for the Pacific Stock Exchange, the California School ofFine Arts in San Francisco, MoMA and the Detroit Institute of Arts.By the 1930s, he enjoyed an unrivaled status at the