Product Description

Diego in detail: The most comprehensive study of Rivera's work ever made

A veritable folk hero in Latin America and Mexico's most important artist - along with his wife, painter Frida Kahlo - Diego Rivera (1886-1957) led a passionate life devoted to art and communism. After spending the 1910s in Europe, where he surrounded himself with other artists and embraced the Cubist movement, he returned to Mexico and began to paint the large-scale murals for which he is most famous. In his murals, he addressed social and political issues relating to the working class, earning him prophetic status among the peasants of Mexico. He was invited to create works abroad, most notably in the United States, where he stirred up controversy by depicting Lenin in his mural for the Rockefeller Center in New York City (the mural was destroyed before it was finished). Rivera's most remarkable work is his 1932 Detroit Industry, a group of 27 frescos at the Detroit Institute of Art in Michigan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #449414 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 674 pages

From the Publisher
This lavish volume - the first book to feature Rivera's complete mural oeuvre, including newly discovered works - features numerous large-scale details of the murals, allowing their various components and subtleties to be closely examined. In addition to the murals is a vast selection of paintings, vintage photos, documents, and drawings from public and private collections around the world many of which the whereabouts were previously unknown to scholars and whose inclusion here is thanks to the most intense research performed on Rivera's work since his death. Texts include an illustrated biography and essays by prominent art historians offering interpretations of each mural. One could not ask for a more comprehensive study of Rivera's oeuvre; finally, a half-century after Rivera's death, his work is the subject of the sweeping retrospective it deserves.

From the Author
Contributing authors: María Estela Duarte Sanchez, Laura González Matute, Renato González Mello, Catha Paquette, Ana Isabel Pérez Gavilán Ávila, Nadia Ugalde Gómez, Marina Vázquez Ramos, James Weschler

About the Author
Luis-Martín Lozano is art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art. He is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to research Rivera's and Kahlo's oeuvre in California. Lozano has taught and lectured extensively on the subject of Mexican art and has written more than 50 essays about Mexican modernism as well as monographic essays about Diego Rivera, María Izquierdo, Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo and many others. Since 2001 he has been director of the Museo de Arte Moderno de México. Diego Rivera's grandson Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera has worked as editor of the magazines Punto Cero en Literatura, El Faro revista de literatura y arte and M'hija, together with Carlos Jaurena. He founded Kahlo-Coronel Fotogalería, Mexico's first private photo-gallery, in 1987. His collection of Mexican popular pottery is the world's most extensive, including more than 15,000 pieces from the 16th century to the present day. He has curated more than 100 exhibitions for art galleries, museums, and biennials and has written 71 publications.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic!
I own several books on Diego Rivera, this new Taschen book is the only one I'd ever need. It's HUGE with to start with, then it has nearly poster sized fold-out illustrations, beautifully crisp close ups of his murals (yes, all of them). The book also includes some of his easel paintings, although the emphasis is on his mural work plus preliminary drawings. If only there was such a book on the rest of my favorite painters, this one is a milestone in art-book publishing, period. Like it's tailor made for artists, and a bargain at the price.

It doesn't get any better
Taschen's XL art series is wonderful in it's own right but this just might be the best they've yet produced. This enormous tome is superb in it's execution. The picture quality is the absolute best and several of the murals are presented as foldouts allowing the rich colorful images to pop off the page. Copious amounts of information, including photos and diagrams are included to give the history and make-up of the pieces even more depth. If you have the money and the space this is the best book on Rivera that you will find.

Diego Rivera Complete Murals
This product is fantastic! It's not a book for the light weight as it is physically heavy to hold. However due to its enormous size, it means you get to see all Rivera's amazing detail close up.

The commentary is interesting and informative about the history and politics that influenced Rivera's art. Seeing the vast number of murals he painted in his lifetime in one book, makes one appreciate his skill and patience.

My one criticism - the excessive packaging by Amazon. It arrived in a massive box full of plastic - this really was unnecessary and I hope Amazon will reduce the amount of packaging it uses.