Diego Rivera's Cubist Portraits at the Meadows
Portrait of a Painter (Portrait of Zinoviev), 1913 |
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“Diego Rivera—The Cubist Portraits, 1913-1917” When the name Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886-1957) is mentioned, the images that come to mind for most students and fans of art history are the many social realist murals that decorate public buildings in Mexico and around the world. After all, from 1922 until his death in 1957, Rivera was one of the best-known muralists of his time. After the Mexican Revolution ended in 1915, the Mexican government set about to commission artists to decorate many of the public buildings with artwork that would carry a nationalistic and socialist message to its audience. Rivera created large murals for the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City, for Rockefeller Center in New York City and for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, among many others. However, the intriguing pieces currently on view at the Meadows Museum, “Diego Rivera-The Cubist Portraits, 1913-1917” gives viewers an unexpected look at the artist’s formative years. This amazing group of paintings covers only a four-year period, but reveals the evolution of the artist’s work from use of some proto-Cubist elements in his otherwise fairly realistic portraits of 1913 to analytical Cubism, characterized by his paired down portraits of 1917 that focused on capturing the emotional essence of the sitter rather than any realistic resemblance. In 1898, the twelve-year-old Rivera began his formal art training at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City. By age 20, in 1907, he longed to be closer to the hub of art-world action in Europe. He left Mexico for Madrid and for the next fourteen years, 1907-1922, would live and work in Spain and France. On his arrival in Madrid, he apprenticed with Eduardo Chicharro, a symbolist painter whose color sensibilities intrigued the young artist. After almost three years, he left Chicharro’s studio for Paris. When Rivera arrived in Paris in 1909 the art world had discovered a new style called Cubism through the work of Spaniards Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris, the movement’s most famous proponents. Cubism explored the relationship of objects and figures in space by freely combining views from many angles within the same composition. Rivera met Picasso in 1911 and became part of the milieu of artists who were friends of Picasso and were greatly influenced by him. His work began to change, to include elements of this new style. In 1915, Rivera said “As the old world would soon blow itself apart (WWI), never to be the same again, so Cubism broke down forms as they had been for centuries and was creating out of the fragments new forms, new objects, new patterns, and ultimately new worlds.” As indicated by the show’s title, most pieces included are portraits. One can see in them the artist’s progression from toying with the sensibilities of Cubism to full-fledged adoption of the style in 1917. It is an enlightening group of paintings and this show is a great opportunity to see a formative and rarely exhibited period of Rivera’s work. There are no plans for this show to travel, so this may be your only opportunity to see this rare group of pieces.
Sailor at Lunch (Navy Rifleman), 1914 One of the only non-portraits in the rooms is also a highlight of the show. In “Zapatista Landscape” from 1915 Rivera combines all that he had inculcated from Cubism with his own rich Mexican heritage. This cubist landscape/still life has Mexican mountains behind, with a towering sombrero, a rifle, an ammo box and the bright patterns of a serape, all overlaying one another. Rivera considered this his greatest painting of the period, and I would have to agree. A dispute over this painting would also be a key element in the dissolution of the friendship between Rivera and Picasso and was one of the reasons Rivera abandoned Cubism after 1917. It seems that from the time of their initial acquaintance in 1911, Pablo Picasso made a habit of regularly dropping by Rivera’s studio and looking over his work. It was common practice for Picasso to visit many artists’ studios whose work he admired and inspect their work. Picasso considered the development of art a collaborative effort. After all, he and Juan Gris had jointly developed Cubism and their work often played off one another’s. However, Rivera chafed at the better-known artist rifling through his work at will and felt that Picasso had incorporated too many elements of his (Rivera’s) paintings into his own work. When Picasso produced “Man Leaning on a Table” in 1916 and it had several very similar elements to “Zapatista Landscape,” including a central pyramid shape, a pointed hat, areas of dot pattern and a distinctive foliage pattern, Rivera had had enough. He formally accused Picasso of plagiarism and the friendship was irrevocably broken. This show does not include Picasso’s “Man Leaning on a Table,” but in the room labeled “Spanish Friends,” there is a Picasso painting from the time of this controversy. One can definitely see that there were several graphic similarities between the two artists’ work of the time. In 1917, a bad critical review of Rivera’s show of Cubist portraits combined with the break in friendship from Picasso perhaps led to Rivera reconsidering his artistic direction. His work after 1917 was more realistic and in 1922 he returned to Mexico where he developed the social realist style that fills his murals and for which he is most remembered. Two additional rooms included in this exhibit offer an excellent opportunity to view Rivera’s work in comparison with some of his peers. The first room, “Spanish Friends,” includes canvases by Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, and Chicharro, all major influences in Rivera’s work at the time. The second, “Spanish Contemporaries,” displays a group of artists well-known during the same period but with whom Rivera had no close contact. This second room is interesting for its contrasts to the rest of the exhibit. Most of the works in this room are of the well-executed academic style. While some artists were breaking into new territory of Cubism, academic realism continued as a strong thread in the art market. Take the time to see this show while it is on view! It will give you a deeper understanding of Rivera’s life and career. |
All works by Diego Rivera reproduced © 2009 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
