Curator Leah Dickerman discusses the murals and career of Diego Rivera. “Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art” is on view at MoMA through May 14. The exhibition features murals, which are up to six feet by eight feet in size and weigh as much as 1,000 pounds, made of frescoed plaster, concrete, and steel. There are also three working drawings, a “portable mural” made in 1930, and smaller prints, watercolors, and drawings.
Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 93 ¾ x 74” (238.1 x 188 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund.
(© 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Charcoal on paper, 98 3/8 x 78” (250 x 198 cm). Private collection, Mexico.
(© 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Fresco on reinforced cement in a metal framework, 41 x 52 ½” (104.14 x 133.35 cm). Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts. Purchased with the Winthrop Hillyer Fund SC 1934:8-1.
(© 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Charcoal on paper, 97 1/4x 76 7/8 (247 x 195.2 cm). Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, Mexico.
(© 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 74 x 94 1/8” (188 x 239 cm). Private collection, Mexico
(© 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 58 1/16 x 94 1/8” (147.5 x 239 cm). Private collection, Mexico
Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 94 1/8 x 74 3/16 in (239 x 188.5 cm). Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, Mexico