One Last Look at Rivera

Here is one last look at the artwork of Diego Rivera at the Dolores Olmedo Museum...

 "Nude Woman from Tehuantepec"  1946

"The Cabbage Seller"  1936

"Women Combing their Hair"  1957

"In the Market at Papantla"  1955

"The Family"  1934

"Head of a Woman from Tehuantepec"  1936

"Woman with Flowers"  1938

"The Flowered Canoe"  1931

In 1955 Rivera, who had been diagnosed with cancer, traveled to the Soviet Union to seek treatment.

 "The Russian Nurse" 1956

"Russian Children" 1956

"Woman Shoveling Snow" 1955

Dolores Olmedo invited the dying Rivera to spend time at her house in Acapulco.

Each day he would paint the sunset from the balcony of the house.

"Sunsets"  1956

"The Hammock" 1956

This is the last canvas completed by Rivera before his death in 1957.

"The Watermelons"  1957

"Self Portrait"  1954

More of Rivera's Art

Here are some more pieces of Diego Rivera's artwork in the Dolores Olmedo Museum...

"The Execution of Maximillian"  1935

This sketch was used as a stencil for the painting of one portion of Rivera's famous murals in the National Palace depicting the history of Mexico.

"Mother Earth"  1926

These were preliminary sketches for Rivera's mural in the School of Agriculture at Chapingo.  The model was Rivera's second wife, Guadalupe Marín.

"Frozen Assets"  1931

This fresco shows Rivera's admiration for the architecture of New York City and also his criticism of its economic inequality.  At the top is the New York skyline, in the middle a warehouse used to house the homeless, and at the bottom the vault of a bank with safe deposit boxes.

"Pneumatic Drill"  1931

This is one of several charcoal sketches that Rivera did of his first impressions of New York City when he came to the U.S. for a retrospective exhibit of his work at the Museum of Modern Art.

"Dance to the Sun" 1942

"Dance to the Earth"  1939

Rivera did a number of watercolor illustrations for a book of poetry by the Yucatecan writer Antonio Mediz Bolio.

"Land of the Peasant and the Deer" 1935

"Hunter with Snake, Deer and Two Birds"  1935

"Self Portrait"  1921

"Self Portrait"  1949

"Portrait of Pita Amor"  1949

Pita Amor was a Mexican writer and poet who was a friend of Frida Kahlo.

"Nude with Calla Lillies"  1942

Dolores Olmedo was married to British journalist and publisher Howard Phillips between 1935 and 1957.  They had four children.  Rivera did a number of portraits of the family.

"Portrait of Irene Phillips Olmedo"  1955

"Portrait of Alfredo Phillips Olmedo"  1956

"Portrait of Dolores Olmedo and her Daugher Irene"   1956

"Portrait of Eduardo and Carlos Phillips Olmedo"   1956

Still to come... one more entry on the art of Diego Rivera at the Dolores Olmedo Museum

 

The Art of Diego

Diego Rivera is best known as a mural painter, but he also did a large number of smaller paintings and drawings.  Dolores Olmedo was a close friend of Rivera's and collected 145 of his works.  It comprises the largest collection of Rivera's art in the world.  Not all of the collection is on exhibit at any one time, but there were still a formidable number of his works on display.  It's going to take several blog posts to present them all.

In this post we'll look at some of the art he did as a young man while living and studying in Spain and France between 1907 and 1920.

"Self Portrait with a Broad-brimmed Hat" 1907

"The Picador"  1909

"At the Toledo Fountain"  1913

"The Old Men" 1912

While in Europe, Rivera experimented with Cubism.

"Sun Breaking Through the Mist"  1913

"The Young Man with a Fountain Pen"  1914

"The Trail" 1915

"The Telegraph Post"  1916

"Still Life with Utensils"  1917

"Composition with Bust"  1916

"Knife and Fruit in Front of a Window"  1917

With this painting Rivera begins to break from Cubism.

"Woman with Geese"  1918

You have to look closely to see the woman and her geese.

"Landscape in Midi"  1918

The painting is reminiscent of Cezanne

"Still Life"  1918

"The Mathematician" 1919

By this time the break with Cubism is complete.

In 1921 Rivera returned to Mexico where he became a leading member of the Mexican muralist movement.

More art by Diego Rivera in the next post.