Diego Rivera Timeline

(December 8, 1886 - November 24, 1957)

Diego Rivera was a renowned Mexican painter famous for his large-scale murals depicting Mexican society, labor movements, and history. As a leading figure of the Mexican Mural Movement alongside José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, he created iconic works in Mexico and the United States and was married to artist Frida Kahlo. More Less

Go to: Timeline | Event List | Key Facts | Directory

Early Life and Training

Birth of Diego Rivera in Guanajuato, Mexico

Dec 8, 1886

Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez was born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico, to María del Pilar Barrientos and Diego Rivera Acosta, a well-to-do couple. His mother was said to have converso ancestry.

Rivera claims he engaged in cannibalism while in Mexico

1904

Rivera claimed in his autobiography that, while in Mexico in 1904, he engaged in cannibalism, pooling his money with others to purchase cadavers from the city morgue and particularly relishing women's brains in vinaigrette.

Rivera studies with Eduardo Chicharro in Madrid

1907

After arriving in Europe in 1907, Rivera first went to Madrid to study with the painter Eduardo Chicharro, beginning his formal artistic training abroad.

Rivera embraces Cubism

1913 - 1917

From 1913 to 1917, Rivera enthusiastically embraced Cubism, the new avant-garde style then transforming European art.

Modigliani paints Rivera's portrait at La Ruche

1914

Rivera's circle frequented La Ruche in Paris, where his Italian friend Amedeo Modigliani painted his portrait in 1914.

Image source: Diego Rivera

Shift toward Post-Impressionism inspired by Cézanne

1917

Around 1917, inspired by Paul Cézanne's paintings, Rivera shifted toward Post-Impressionism, using simple forms and large patches of vivid colors.

Personal Life

Rivera marries Angelina Beloff; birth of son Diego

1911

Rivera married Angelina Beloff in 1911, and they had a son, Diego (1916–1918), who died young.

Birth of daughter Marika Rivera

1918

During that time, Rivera also had a relationship with painter Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska (Marevna), who gave birth to a daughter named Marika Rivera in 1918 or 1919.

Rivera marries Guadalupe Marín

Jun 1922

Rivera divorced Beloff and married Guadalupe Marín as his second wife in June 1922, after having returned to Mexico.

Image source: Guadalupe Marín

Marriage to Frida Kahlo

Aug 21, 1929

After divorcing Guadalupe Marín, Rivera married the much younger Frida Kahlo on August 21, 1929, following a passionate affair.

Divorce from Frida Kahlo

1939

Their mutual infidelities and his violent temper resulted in divorce in 1939, but they remarried on December 8, 1940, in San Francisco.

Remarriage to Frida Kahlo

Dec 8, 1940

Following their 1939 divorce, Frida Kahlo and Rivera remarried on December 8, 1940, in San Francisco.

Image source: Frida Kahlo

Marriage to Emma Hurtado

Jul 29, 1955

A year after Kahlo's death, on July 29, 1955, Rivera married Emma Hurtado, his agent since 1946.

Image source: Diego Rivera

Murals and Artistic Career

Rivera returns to Mexico to join the mural program

1921

After José Vasconcelos became Minister of Education, Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 to become involved in the government-sponsored Mexican mural program planned by Vasconcelos.

Image source: Mexican muralism

First significant mural Creation painted in Mexico City

Jan 1922

In January 1922, Rivera painted—experimentally in encaustic—his first significant mural Creation in the Bolívar Auditorium of the National Preparatory School in Mexico City while guarding himself with a pistol against right-wing students.

Murals begun at the Secretariat of Public Education

Sep 1922 - 1928

Rivera developed his own native style based on large, simplified figures and bold colors with an Aztec influence, clearly present in murals at the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico City begun in September 1922, intended to consist of 124 frescoes and finished in 1928. His murals reflected Mexican society and the country's 1910 Revolution.

Image source: Secretariat of Public Education

Chapingo murals painted

1925 - 1927

Some of Rivera's most famous murals are featured at the National School of Agriculture at Chapingo near Texcoco (1925–1927). He also painted a fresco titled Tierra Fecundada (Fertile Land) in the university's chapel between 1923 and 1927.

Image source: Chapingo Autonomous University

Mural In the Arsenal features communist figures

1928

Observers noted that his 1928 mural In the Arsenal includes the figures of communists Tina Modotti, Cuban Julio Antonio Mella, and Italian Vittorio Vidali.

Cuernavaca and National Palace murals painted

1929 - 1935

Among Rivera's most famous murals are those in the Cortés Palace in Cuernavaca (1929–30) and the National Palace in Mexico City (1929–30, 1935).

Image source: National Palace (Mexico)

Commission for the San Francisco Stock Exchange

Sep 1930

In September 1930, Rivera accepted a commission by architect Timothy L. Pflueger to paint murals in San Francisco.

Image source: San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange

Detroit Industry Murals completed

1932 - 1933

Between 1932 and 1933, Rivera completed a major commission: twenty-seven fresco panels, entitled Detroit Industry, on the walls of an inner court at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Image source: Detroit Industry Murals

Man at the Crossroads destroyed at Rockefeller Center

1933

Rivera's mural Man at the Crossroads, painted in 1933 for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, was later destroyed. In December 1933, Rivera returned to Mexico.

Image source: Man at the Crossroads

Repainted as Man, Controller of the Universe

1934

He repainted Man at the Crossroads in 1934 in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, calling this version Man, Controller of the Universe.

Image source: Man at the Crossroads

Pan American Unity mural completed in San Francisco

Jun 5, 1940 - Nov 29, 1940

On June 5, 1940, invited again by Pflueger, Rivera returned for the last time to the United States to paint a ten-panel mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. His work, Pan American Unity, was completed on November 29, 1940.

Image source: Pan American Unity

A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park painted

1946 - 1947

In 1946–47, Rivera painted A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park, a fresco that featured a fully elaborated figure of La Calavera Catrina.

Image source: Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central

Politics and Legacy

Rivera joins AMORC and helps found Quetzalcoatl lodge

1926

In 1926, Rivera became a member of AMORC, the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, an occult organization founded by Harvey Spencer Lewis, and was among the founders of AMORC's Mexico City lodge, called Quetzalcoatl after the pre-Columbian deity.

Image source: AMORC

Ordered to leave the Soviet Union

1928

Although commissioned to paint a mural for the Red Army Club in Moscow, in 1928 Rivera was ordered by authorities to leave the country because, he suspected, of resentment on the part of certain Soviet artists.

Accusations following Mella's murder

Jan 1929

After Mella was murdered in January 1929, allegedly by Stalinist assassin Vidali, Rivera was accused of having had advance knowledge of a planned attack.

Image source: Julio Antonio Mella

Attempted readmission into the Mexican Communist Party

1954

In 1954, Rivera tried to be readmitted into the Mexican Communist Party. He had been expelled in part because of his support of Trotsky, who had been exiled to Mexico and assassinated there in 1940.

Image source: Mexican Communist Party

Death of Diego Rivera

Nov 24, 1957

Rivera died on November 24, 1957, at the age of 70, closing a career in which, between 1922 and 1953, he painted murals in Mexico City, Chapingo, and Cuernavaca in Mexico, and San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City in the United States.

Exhibitions and Posthumous Recognition

Publication of The Frescoes of Diego Rivera

1929

Also in 1929, American journalist Ernestine Evans's book The Frescoes of Diego Rivera was published in New York City; it was the first English-language book on the artist.

Retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art

Nov 1931

In November 1931, the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan mounted a retrospective exhibition of Rivera's work; Kahlo attended with him.

Key Facts

Diego Rivera was born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico, and studied art at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico City before moving to Europe.
He spent over a decade in Paris, where he was influenced by Cubism, Post-Impressionism, and the works of artists like Paul Cézanne.
Rivera was a central figure in the Mexican Mural Movement, commissioned by the government to paint murals in public buildings such as the National Palace and Secretariat of Public Education.
In 1933, his mural 'Man at the Crossroads' for Rockefeller Center in New York was destroyed because it included a portrait of Vladimir Lenin.
He married painter Frida Kahlo in 1929; their tumultuous relationship made them one of the most famous artistic couples in history. He died on November 24, 1957, in Mexico City.

Source

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