Diego Rivera
Diego Rivera (1886-1957), about the most renowned Latin American master painter, founded the Mexican Muralist movement with Jose Clemente Orozco and David Siqueiros. Rivera painted numerous murals in Mexico City and the United States (e.g. Palacio Nacional, San Francisco Stock Exchange, Detroit's Institute of Fine Arts). Rivera also had a prolific production of sketches, watercolors and paintings. While traveling in Europe, this intellectual and artistic genius produced first-rate Symbolist paintings while in Spain, and Cubist, Cezannesque and Ingresque works while in France. Rivera returned to Mexico and began searching for his interpretation of a "pure" Mexican art form creating his "popular style" (corn grinders, burden bearers, flower carriers, dancers, laborers) reflecting pride in indigenous peoples' pre-Columbian past.
