Diego Rivera

by Pete Hamill

Other authorsDiego Rivera
Hardcover, 1999

Status

Available

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Publication

New York : Harry N. Abrams, 1999.

Description

"Like his contemporary, Pablo Picasso, the Mexican artist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) was a man of enormous energy, astonishing versatility, and voracious appetites. Rivera made his mark as one of the greatest muralists of the twentieth century. His dramatic public life involved him in the deepest contradictions of art and politics. The great years of Rivera's art - the 1920s and early 1930s - saw an outpouring of work that was equal to the achievement of any twentieth-century master." "Pete Hamill's Diego Rivera narrates the life and explores the art of this remarkable figure: prodigiously productive artist, polemicist and political activist, Mexican nationalist, and lover of many women. Acknowledging the cost of Rivera's didactic communism, Hamill focuses on what is enduring in his work." "Pete Hamill has served as editor in chief of the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and the Mexico City News."--Jacket.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JBarringer
I wish this book had more pictures, but otherwise this was a well-written, readable and enjoyable history book with some great art images and a fun, interesting perspective on the events in Mexico, Europe and the United States from 1900 through the 1950's. Diego Rivera was a bastard to some people,
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and seems so single-minded about art that I wondered while reading this book if he might have had Asperger's or something. Still, he had a complex and successful life that comes through nicely in Pete Hamill's story. More photos, not just of art, but of the people involved in this story would have been helpful. Many artists' names are mentioned that are not well known to the average reader, and some sort of visual references would have been nice, photos of what these people were creating that made them influential for Rivera, or that made them similar enough to him to hang out with him. And, photos of the artists and other people in this story would have been nice to make the sections about his artistic development more than just a list of names. A modern reader does have the Internet, though, and with a little effort there are many images available online. Overall this was a very good book, highly recommended.
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