Diego Rivera is still one of Mexico’s most beloved individuals.He is acclaimed for both his involvement in the nation’s creative rebirth and re-invigoration of the muralist artform, as well as his enormous personality, more than 50 years after his passing.
Rivera studied the art of Diego Velázquez, El Greco, Francisco Goya, and the Flemish painters in the Prado Museum in Spain, which served as a firm framework for his later work.
Rivera was active in local politics immediately after joining the Mexican Communist Party in 1922. He was painting frescoes in Mexico City’s National School of Agriculture at the time.
Rivera died in Mexico in 1957 at the age of 70, following a voyage to the Soviet Union in the hopes of treating his disease. His request that his ashes be interred beside those of Kahlo’s was denied.
Rivera influenced painters as varied as Thomas Hart Benton, Ben Shahn, and Jackson Pollock with his socially and politically wide aesthetic vision, storytelling focus, and utilization of symbolism.