Tuesday, March 25, 2014

A Mexican Painter And His Inspiration

By Darren Hartley


Aiding in the promulgation of the Mexican Mural Renaissance, Diego Rivera paintings are mainly big wall works done in fresco. Aside from being a world famous Mexican painter, Diego Rivera is also known for being an active communist and a husband to Frida Kahlo.

Diego Rivera paintings initially embraced cubism. They shifted towards Post-Impressionism with simple forms and large patches of vivid colors, inspired by the paintings of Paul Cezanne. They began to attract attention and displayed at several exhibitions.

The first significant mural among the Diego Rivera paintings was Creation, experimentally painted in encaustic in 1922. The subsequent murals Diego painted were in fresco only, dealing with Mexican society and reflected the Mexican revolution of 1910.

On the basis of large, simplified figures and colors, the Diego Rivera paintings reflected a native style development. This started in September, 1922. There was a sprinkle of Aztec influence noted in these paintings as well.

Story telling is a feature of Diego Rivera paintings. A perfect example of this feature in Diego's mural entitled In The Arsenal. In this mural, Tina Modotti is shown holding an ammunition belt while facing Julio Antonio Mella, wearing a light hat and standing in front of Vittorio Vidale, wearing a black hat. The painting was considered by some spectators as evidence that Diego had prior knowledge of Vidale's murdering Mella.

Detroit Industry, a series of 27 fresco panels, consisted the Diego Rivera paintings between 1932 and 1933. Containing a Vladimir Lenin portrait was a Diego Rivera mural in 1933 entitled Man at the Crossroads. This particular mural was retitled Man, Controller of the Universe, after it was repainted in 1934.

Forming the bridge between 19th century Impressionism and early 20th century Cubism were the Cezanne paintings. They laid the foundations for the transition from the creation of artistic endeavour in the 19th century to a new and glaringly different art work in the 20th century.

Paul Cezanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter, often called the Father of Modern Art. Cezanne paintings demonstrated a mastery of design, color, composition and draftsmanship. They featured repetitive, sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes that are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable.

Cezanne paintings used planes of color and small brushstrokes, building up to form complex fields. They are direct expressions of the sensations of the observing eye and abstractions from observed nature. They convey the intense study of subjects by Paul, his searching gaze and dogged struggle to deal with the complexity of human visual perception.

The ideal mixture of naturalistic representation, personal expression and abstract pictorial order is what Cezanne paintings aim at. Because early Cezanne paintings were done in dark tones supplemented by heavy and fluid pigments, they subsequently implied the moody and romantic expressionism imbued by previous generations of painters.

It was a commitment to contemporary life representations that Cezanne paintings eventually developed into. They became Paul's own observation of the world. They were no longer concerned with either thematic idealization or stylistic affection.




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