Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art

 

For the exhibition "Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art," on view November 13, 2011, to May 14, 2012, MoMA has reunited five portable murals—freestanding frescoes with bold images commemorating events in Mexican history—that Rivera made for a 1931 monographic exhibition of his work.

 

Diego Rivera painting "Liberation of the Peon," 1931. Leah Dickerman, curator of the current exhibition, writes: “In order to solve a key problem—how to present the work of this famous muralist when murals were by definition made and fixed on-site—the Museum brought Rivera to New York six weeks before the show’s opening (in 1931) and gave him studio space in an empty gallery. Working around the clock with three assistants, Rivera produced five “portable murals: large panels of frescoed plaster, cement, and steel, their images commemorating Mexican history and addressing themes of revolution and class inequity. After the opening, to great publicity, Rivera added three more murals, now taking on New York subjects—monumental images of the city during the Great Depression—which were unveiled January 6, 1932. All eight panels were on display as the centerpiece of the exhibition for the rest of its run. The show set attendance records for the young museum during its five-week presentation, beating Matisse hands down. Image: Photo by Peter Juley. Photographic Archive, The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York