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| Diego María Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was born in the Guanajuato, Mexico, on December 8, 1886. At age 10, his family moved to Mexico City, where he attended San Carlos' Fine Arts Academy on a government scholarship. The roots of his social realism can be seen in his expulsion from the school in 1902, a result of his participation in student revolts. In 1907 he held his first exposition, which resulted in his receiving a scholarship to continue his education in Spain at the San Fernando de Madrid school. During this period, he traveled throughout Europe before moving to Paris in 1911. One of Rivera's recurring themes was the Mexican Revolution. Because of the scale of the events, he began to paint frescos and murals, studying the Italian Renaissance frescos and the murals of Giotto. He returned to Mexico in 1921 and founded the artistic movement known as the Mexican school of painting with José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. During this period he painted many murals, which led to his leadership not only in art, but in politics as well. His most ambitious project, an epic mural based on the history of Mexico for the National Palace, was unfinished due to his death on November 25, 1957, in Mexico City. |  Photo by the Detroit News | |
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