Diego Rivera: A Retrospective [Anglais] [Relié]

Rivera portrayed himself in his memoirs as a revolutionary firebrand and visionary artist who repudiated his ties to European art in favor of a new style of mural painting. Yet the essays in this catalogue prove that the Mexican artist fused Cubist space with Futurist movement in epic murals molded from his study of Italian Renaissance frescoes and pre-Colombian sculpture. The first major retrospective of Rivera's works, mounted at the Detroit Institute of Arts, shows that there was much more to Rivera than his murals. Penetrating portraits, soul-baring self-portraits, sensitive nudes and cityscapes, and studies of Indian women are among the pictures reproduced here in 200 color and 325 black-and-white plates. Rivera's travels in the U.S. inspired paintings and drawings which drew on Aztec cosmology to explain industrial society in terms of universal order. Rivera's reputation has declined over the years, his art dismissed by some as leftist propaganda. But the essays in this outstanding album establish that his mural style is miles apart from socialist realism, and the contributors question the superficial distinction between "high" and "folk" art.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

This masterful work is the catalog of a jointly sponsored retrospective at the Instituo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Helms intertwines Mexico's history with Rivera's evolution as an artist, incorporating family photographs and material from many biographical sources. Rivera, one of Mexico's leading artistic and intellectual figures, is given his due in the many supplementary essays by recognized experts. The placement of the prints and drawings, beautifully reproduced in color and tone, enhances the book's value immensely. Highly recommended. Roderic A. Camp, Latin American Studies Dept., Central Coll., Pella, Ia.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.

A celebration of a renowned artist and political activist.

Diego Rivera, in a career that spanned sixty years, produced some of the most distinctive and socially powerful works in modern art. Rivera was very much a twentieth-century renaissance man. He was a painter, printmaker, sculptor, book illustrator, one of the first collectors of pre-Columbian art, as well as a political activist. In both the United States and Mexico, Rivera's monumental frescos gave life to revolutionary themes, often offending the critics as well as the public. In New York's Rockefeller Center, for instance, his murals were destroyed because of public outrage over their strongly pro-communist content. This volume illustrates Rivera's life and work from his early years at the Mexican Academy of San Carlos and studies in Spain; his subsequent eleven-year sojourn in Paris in the first part of this century; to his efforts to establish a truly national Mexican style in the murals for which he is most famous. Accompanying Rivera's work are essays by noted scholars reevaluating his place in the history of modern art. 200 color plates, 325 black-and-white illustrations.

Linda Downs is an expert on Rivera and head of education at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.