Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was born in 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico, and became the most famous muralist of the twentieth century — an artist who believed that painting belonged not in galleries for the rich but on the walls of public buildings, where it could educate and inspire the people. After studying in Europe for fourteen years, absorbing Cubism, Cézanne, and Italian fresco technique, Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 and embarked on a monumental programme of mural painting that would occupy the rest of his life.
His murals in the National Palace, the Ministry of Education, and the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City narrate the history of Mexico from the pre-Columbian past through the Spanish conquest to the Revolution, celebrating indigenous culture, denouncing colonial exploitation, and envisioning a socialist future. His style — monumental figures, bold colours, flattened perspective, dense narrative — drew on Aztec sculpture, popular print traditions, and Italian Renaissance fresco in equal measure.
Rivera’s fame extended to the United States, where he painted controversial murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts and Rockefeller Center (the latter was destroyed when Rivera refused to remove a portrait of Lenin). His tumultuous marriage to Frida Kahlo has become the stuff of legend. Rivera died in 1957, leaving behind a body of public art that fundamentally changed the relationship between painting and society in the Americas.