Photo By Gail
Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957) created numerous portraits, capturing unnamed subjects alongside close friends and renowned figures in the arts. Mandrake (1939) depicts Maya Guarina, whose lace dress and headpiece contrast with a skull in her hands and a spiderweb in the upper left corner. A small mandrake root emerges in the upper right area of the portrait. Known for its hallucinogenic properties and magical associations, it contributes to an enigmatic portrait with surrealist qualities.
Photographed in the San Diego Museum of Art.
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Photo By Gail
Cubist Landscape (1912) was inspired by a trip that Diego Rivera made to Spain on 1911, where he encountered the olive trees of Catalonia. The serrated blue ridge in the painting evokes Montserrat, a mountain in the region. The work exemplifies the idiosyncratic approach to Cubism that Rivera developed in the 1910s, when he lived in Paris. He saw these early works, which combine a sun-drenched palette with kaleidoscopic planes and abstract patterning, as a way of beginning to forge a specifically Mexican modernism. “My Cubist paintings,” he said, “are my most Mexican.”
Photographed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
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Photo By Gail
In the distinct brand of cubism that he developed while living temporarily in Paris, Diego Rivera used small dots of color, a technique known as Pointillism, to amplify contrasts in texture and pattern. Here, the sleek bottle of green liquid, presumably absinthe, and shiny metal spoon, necessary for preparing the potent drink, are paired against a strip of camouflage tablecloth, a reference to World War I.
Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Diego Rivera, The Cafe Terrace →
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