He began working and drawing at a very young age of ten. In 1907 he went to the San Carlos Academy of Fine Art in Mexico City. He continued his education in Europe after that. He lived in Paris, France from the summer of 1911 until the winter of 1920. He traveled to other countries throughout this time as well. During this time, he met with some other famous artists, such as Marc Chagall, Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso (Souter). In his early years Rivera’s work was greatly influenced by a style of art known as cubism. This form of art was created by Pablo Picasso and George Braque around 1910. This style of art reduced objects into geometric forms then would align the objects back in a shallow space using many separate points. The style would take normal objects and create them in their art more in a shape than its realistic form (Rewald).
During his stay in Europe, he studies were largely influenced by Paul Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin. The work Rivera created during these times was diverse in many ways. He used mathematical equations that he learned from San Carlos throughout his …show more content…
It is not stated or known why he decided to go away and reject this style of art. Some believe the Russian Revolution had a part to play in his rejection of the cubism style in such a short period of time (Roberts). Both the Russian and Mexican Revolution had an impact on Rivera and he started to take an interest in large murals that show people going through daily struggles.
After returning to Mexico, Rivera continued created works of art. In 1922, he requested and was granted funding by the government to work on public buildings. Rivera’s first mural was called Creation. 1922-1923. It was completely government-commissioned and took a year for him to finish this thousand square foot mural (Moss). Rivera got married to another artist named Frida Kahlo in 1929. They did not have children of their own but Rivera had several children from previous marriages and relationships (Souter).
Diego Rivera continued his career in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. His murals during this time where seen by the public as radical figures. He used the widely debated conflicts in capitalist and socialist views in his art. In the 1940s he returned to work for the government and doing work on murals in San Francisco. One of his last pieces of art was a mural called A History of Medicine, 1953