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Artist
Diego Rivera, 8 Dec 1886 - 24 Nov 1957
Sitter
Diego Rivera, 8 Dec 1886 - 24 Nov 1957
Date
1930
Type
Print
Medium
Lithograph on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 46.7 × 35.7 cm (18 3/8 × 14 1/16")
Topic
Diego Rivera: Visual Arts\Artist
Diego Rivera: Male
Diego Rivera: Visual Arts\Artist\Painter
Diego Rivera: Visual Arts\Artist\Painter\Muralist
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; The Abraham and Virginia Weiss Charitable Trust, Amy and Marc Meadows, in honor of Wendy Wick Reaves
Diego Rivera is remembered for his public art and murals in Mexico and the United States. During the late 1920s and the 1930s, he painted monumental and powerful murals for public buildings, including a twenty-seven-panel fresco called Detroit Industry for the Detroit Institute of Arts. His 1933 mural for Rockefeller Center was canceled when he included among its portraits one of Lenin. Rivera was well known in the United States by the time he created this self-portrait. It is one of numerous lithographs he produced as a means of supporting himself while working on more time- consuming projects. The lively crosshatching strokes used to model the contours of his face relate directly to the technique he employed in his monumental murals. Notably, this image was used by several major newspapers to accompany his obituary, and thus, in significant ways, it is how the American public often pictured him.
Diego Rivera es recordado por sus obras de arte público y sus murales en México y Estados Unidos. Entre las décadas de 1920 y 1930 pintó murales de impactante monumentalidad para edificios públicos estadounidenses, entre ellos un fresco de veintisiete paneles llamado Detroit Industry (Detroit Institute of Arts). Su mural de 1933 para el Rockefeller Center fue cancelado cuando incluyó entre los represen- tados a Lenin. Para la fecha en que creó este autorretrato, Rivera era ya muy conocido en Estados Unidos. La obra es una de numerosas litografías que produjo para ganarse la vida mientras trabajaba en proyectos de más largo alcance. El vigoroso sombreado a rayas con que moldea los contornos de su rostro remite directamente a la técnica que empleaba en sus grandes murales. Cabe notar que esta imagen fue utilizada por varios periódicos importantes para acompañar su obituario y por lo tanto, de manera significativa, es así como lo recuerda el público estadounidense.
