Sunday 23 March 2014

A Study Of A Mexican Painter And His Inspiration

By Darren Hartley


Diego Rivera paintings are large wall works in fresco. They help established the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Diego Rivera was a world-famous Mexican painter, an active communist and a husband to Frida Kahlo.

Diego Rivera paintings initially embraced cubism. They shifted towards Post-Impressionism with simple forms and large patches of vivid colors, inspired by the paintings of Paul Cezanne. They began to attract attention and displayed at several exhibitions.

Creation was the first significant mural among the Diego Rivera paintings. It was done in 1922 and painted in encaustic in an experimental manner. The following Diego Rivera murals were done only in fresco. They dealt with Mexican society while reflecting the 1910 Mexican revolution.

On the basis of large, simplified figures and colors, the Diego Rivera paintings reflected a native style development. This started in September, 1922. There was a sprinkle of Aztec influence noted in these paintings as well.

Story telling is a feature of Diego Rivera paintings. A perfect example of this feature in Diego's mural entitled In The Arsenal. In this mural, Tina Modotti is shown holding an ammunition belt while facing Julio Antonio Mella, wearing a light hat and standing in front of Vittorio Vidale, wearing a black hat. The painting was considered by some spectators as evidence that Diego had prior knowledge of Vidale's murdering Mella.

Detroit Industry, a series of 27 fresco panels, consisted the Diego Rivera paintings between 1932 and 1933. Containing a Vladimir Lenin portrait was a Diego Rivera mural in 1933 entitled Man at the Crossroads. This particular mural was retitled Man, Controller of the Universe, after it was repainted in 1934.

Cezanne paintings laid the foundations for the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different 20th century work of art. They formed the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century Cubism.

Paul Cezanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter, often called the Father of Modern Art. Cezanne paintings demonstrated a mastery of design, color, composition and draftsmanship. They featured repetitive, sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes that are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable.

Planes of color and small brushstrokes, that build up to form complex fields, are signatures of Cezanne paintings. They directly expressed the sensations of an observing eye and abstractions from an observed nature. Paul studied his subjects intensely and this is conveyed in his paintings, which also reflected his searching gaze and struggle to deal with human visual perception complexity.

The ideal mixture of naturalistic representation, personal expression and abstract pictorial order is what Cezanne paintings aim at. Because early Cezanne paintings were done in dark tones supplemented by heavy and fluid pigments, they subsequently implied the moody and romantic expressionism imbued by previous generations of painters.

It was a commitment to contemporary life representations that Cezanne paintings eventually developed into. They became Paul's own observation of the world. They were no longer concerned with either thematic idealization or stylistic affection.




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