Lithograph, 1932. 420x305 mm; 16 1/2x12 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 100. Signed, dated and inscribed "No 16" in pencil, lower left. A superb impression of this scarce lithograph.
Diego Rivera (1886-1957), who helped establish the Mexico Muralist movement and was a leading artistic figure in Social Realism, was born in Guanajuato in North-Central Mexico. His well-to-do family encouraged his artistic avidity from a young age; his parents installed chalkboards and canvases around the house after coming home one afternoon to find the walls covered in their toddler's drawings. In 1897, Rivera began studying at the oldest art school in Latin America, the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City (now the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes). He remained until 1907 (three years before the start of the Mexican Revolution) at which point he left for Europe to continue his studies. Rivera spent the better part of the next 14 years abroad, mainly in Paris, where he was involved in the thriving avant-garde art scene, and was friends with Amedeo Modigliani, who painted several portraits of him in 1914.
Despite his absence from Mexico, Rivera intently followed the political situation at home. The Mexican Revolution officially ended in 1920, after a decade of bloodshed and political upheaval. The new government, led by Álvaro Obregón, decided to utilize art as a vehicle to unify society and promote their values of equality. Rivera was recruited for this effort; the Mexican government prompted him to first take a tour of Italy to study Renaissance frescoes (this classical influence is readily detected in his work) and then to return to Mexico as a muralist. The country's Minister of Education commissioned local artists, among them Rivera, to create murals around Mexico City to celebrate the lives of the working class and the indigenous people. Rivera embraced the projects and, as a result of them, quickly gained recognition and prominence as a leading muralist in his country.
Rivera was simultaneously garnering the attention of the Soviet Union for his outspoken support of Communism. In 1928, while in Russia on an invitation from the government, Rivera met and befriended none other than Alfred J. Barr, future director of The Museum of Modern Art. This friendship, as well as the admiration and patronage of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, an avid collector of his work and one of the founding members of the museum, led to Rivera's one-man show at The MoMA in 1931, an event that brought the artist into the American mainstream. The exhibition caused a buzz with the press and was a huge hit with the public, solidifying Rivera's status in America. His work was so well received that he completed three additional murals of New York scenes after the show's opening and received numerous additional mural commissions across America (notably the Detroit Industry Murals, 1932-33, for the Ford Motor Company).
Carl Zigrosser, director of the Weyhe Gallery and advocate of modern Mexican art, met the artist while he was in New York. Zigrosser recognized Rivera's rising popularity and encouraged him to embrace lithography as a way to capitalize on his success and disseminate his art. Imagery used in his murals inspired (and in some cases was replicated in) his prints, such as meditations on his heritage and identity, Mexican history, political strife and the celebration of the working class.
We have found only 7 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
