Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art

One of the most significant chapters of "Delirious New York" by Rem Koolhaas, is dedicated to the intervention of Diego Rivera at Rockefeller Center. After 80 years, the second exhibition of this artist at MoMA, is an event that if you have the opportunity to be in New York should not miss. Diego Rivera was the subject of MoMA’s second monographic exhibition (the first was Henri Matisse), which set new attendance records in its five-week run from December 22, 1931, to January 27, 1932. "Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art" in MoMA will be the exhibition’s sole venue (until, May 14, 2012). Organized by Leah Dickerman, Curator, Painting and Sculpture.

Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 58 1/16 x 94 1/8" (147.5 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. Photograph by Rafael Doniz.

In December 1931, The Museum of Modern Art mounted a major exhibition of work by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera. It was only the second retrospective at the Museum, and it was wildly popular, breaking attendance records in its five-week run.

Rivera was already an international celebrity. He was the most visible figure in Mexican muralism, a large-scale public-art initiative that emerged in the 1920s in the wake of the Mexican Revolution. But his murals—by definition fixed on a single site—were impossible to transport for exhibition. To solve this problem, the Museum brought Rivera to New York six weeks before the show opened and provided him with a makeshift studio in an empty gallery. There, Rivera produced five "portable murals"—freestanding frescoes commemorating events in Mexican history—which were prominently featured in the show. After the opening, to great publicity, Rivera made three more murals, taking on contemporary New York subjects through monumental images of the city during the Great Depression. The story of this extraordinary commission elucidates Rivera's pivotal role in shaping debates about the social and political value of public art during a period of economic crisis.

Catalog."Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art". by Leah Dickerman and Anna Indych-López.

Hardcover. 148 pages. 128 illustrations.

Leah Dickerman is a Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art. Anna Indych-López is an Associate Professor of Art History at The City College of New York and The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

EIGHT MURALS, BELOW.

Read less

Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 94 1/8 x 74 3/16" (239 x 188.5 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. Photograph © Eumelia Hernández and Ricardo Alvarado; Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.

Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, approx. 94 x 74" (239 x 188 cm). Location unknown since 1977. Reproduced from a 1932 photograph by Peter A. Juley & Son. Photograph courtesy Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum (cat. no. J0005920).

Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art.

Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 93 3/4 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. Photograph courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Imaging Services (John Wronn).

Fresco on reinforced cement in a galvanized-steel framework, 57 1/8 x 94 1/8" (145.1 x 239.1 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Cameron Morris, 1943. © 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Fresco sobre hormigón armado en estructura de acero galvanizado, 73 x 94 1/4" (185.4 x 239.4 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art. Donación del Sr. y la Sra. Herbert Cameron Morris, 1943. © 2011 Banco de México Fundación de Museos Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, 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. Photograph by Rafael Doniz

View more images

Metalocus recommends

Michelin-Starred Canteen by CRA. Photograph by Melania Delle Grave, Agnese Bedini, DSL Studio.

Integration into the landscape. Michelin-Starred Earthen canteen by Carlo Ratti Associati

Selenite by _naturehumaine. Photograph by Raphaël Thibodeau

An experience of disconnection. Selenite by _naturehumaine

La cabaña del nunca jamás por Ma Yansong/MAD Architects. Fotografía por Zhu Yumeng

Land Art Festival. The Never Hut by Ma Yansong/MAD

More information

JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

José Juan Barba (1964) architect from ETSA Madrid in 1991. Special Mention in the National Finishing University Education Awards 1991. PhD in Architecture ETSAM, 2004. He founded his professional practice in Madrid in 1992 (www.josejuanbarba.com). He has been an architecture critic and editor-in-chief of METALOCUS magazine since 1999, and he advised different NGOs until 1997. He has been a lecturer (in Design, Theory and Criticism, and Urban planning) and guest lecturer at different national and international universities (Roma TRE, Polytechnic Milan, ETSA Madrid, ETSA Barcelona, UNAM Mexico, Univ. Iberoamericana Mexico, University of Thessaly Volos, FA de Montevideo, Washington, Medellin, IE School, U.Alicante, Univ. Europea Madrid, UCJC Madrid, ESARQ-U.I.C. Barcelona,...).

Maître de Conférences IUG-UPMF Grenoble 2013-14. Full assistant Professor, since 2003 up to now at the University of Alcalá School of Architecture, Madrid, Spain. And Jury in competitions as Quaderns editorial magazine (2011), Mies van der Rohe Awards, (2010-2024), Europan13 (2015). He has been invited to participate in the Biennale di Venezia 2016 as part "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione".

He has published several books, the last in 2016, "#positions" and in 2015 "Inventions: New York vs. Rem Koolhaas, Bernard Tschumi, Piranesi " and collaborations on "Spaces of Exception / Spazi d'Eccezione", "La Mansana de la discordia" (2015), "Arquitectura Contemporánea de Japón: Nuevos territorios" (2015)...

Awards.-

- Award. RENOVATION OF SEGURA RIVER ENVIRONMENT, Murcia, Sapin, 2010.
- First Prize, RENOVATION GRAN VÍA, “Delirious Gran Vía”, Madrid, Spain, 2010.
- First Prize, “PANAYIOTI MIXELI Award”. SADAS-PEA, for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture Athens, 2005.
- First Prize, “SANTIAGO AMÓN Award," for the Spreading of Knowledge of Architecture. 2000.
- Award, “PIERRE VAGO Award." ICAC -International Committee of Art Critics. London, 2005.
- First Prize, C.O.A.M. Madrid, 2000. Shortlisted, World Architecture Festival. Centro de Investigación e Interpretación de los Ríos. Tera, Esla y Orbigo, Barcelona, 2008.
- First Prize. FAD AWARD 07 Ephemeral Interventions. “M.C.ESCHER”. Arquin-Fad. Barcelona, Sapin 2007.

Published on: December 28, 2011

Cite: "Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art" METALOCUS. Accessed

<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/diego-rivera-murals-museum-modern-art> ISSN 1139-6415