Saturday, March 29, 2014

A Mexican Painter And His Inspiration

By Darren Hartley


Diego Rivera paintings are large wall works in fresco. They help established the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Diego Rivera was a world-famous Mexican painter, an active communist and a husband to Frida Kahlo.

Cubism was the initial focus of Diego Rivera paintings. With their simple forms and large patches of colors, they began to shift towards Post-Impressionism, a shift inspired by the Paul Cezanne paintings. As they began to attract the attention of their viewing public, they were ultimately displayed at a number of painting exhibitions.

The first mural of note amongst the Diego Rivera paintings was entitled Creation. It was experimentally painted in encaustic in 1922. Other murals painted by Diego were done purely in fresco. Reflecting the Mexican revolution of 1910, they focused on the Mexican society.

There was a development of a native style in the Diego Rivera paintings, starting in September, 1922. The basis of this style was large, simplified figures and colors, with a tinge of an Aztec influence.

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.

Cezanne paintings gradually developed into a commitment to contemporary life representation. They painted the world as observed by Paul sans concern for thematic idealization and stylistic affectation.




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