Diego Rivera: His World And Ours
by Duncan Tonatiuh
Transcript
00:00Diego Rivera and his World and Ours By Duncan Tanateu
00:10To my dad, the first artist I met the ones who always inspires me.
00:16D.T.
00:18Diego Rivera was born in Mexico in a city called Guanajuato, which means the land of
00:23frogs.
00:25As a boy Diego enjoyed playing with his trains, but more than anything he liked to draw.
00:32Diego loved dreaming so much that when he was a young man he sailed on a ship across
00:36the ocean.
00:38He went to the city of Madrid in Spain to study art under the direction of a well-known
00:43painter.
00:45There he learned the classical way to paint which means his finished paintings looked
00:49very realistic almost like photographs.
00:53After his studies, Diego went to Paris, the capital of France.
00:59There he met young artists who were painting in new and exciting ways.
01:04He experimented with these new methods of painting himself.
01:09One method was called cubism in which the painting did not exactly resemble its subject
01:15but was composed of geometric shapes, such as squares, circles, and triangles.
01:22One day a politician named José Vasconcelos urged Diego to return to Mexico.
01:29He wanted Diego and other artists to paint murals around the city about the Mexican people's
01:34history and customs.
01:37Diego was thrilled by this new project.
01:41When he returned to his homeland, Diego traveled through its deserts mountains and jungles.
01:48He wanted to be inspired by his country.
01:52He met people who worked the land and he visited the ruins of ancient Mexican civilizations,
01:58like those of the Azteca and the Maya.
02:01Diego was full of ideas after his trips.
02:05With the help of friends and apprentices, he began to paint murals on large walls so
02:10that everyone in this country rich and poor young and old could see and learn from them.
02:16In his murals, Diego combined the classical way of painting he had learned as a young
02:22man and the new styles of art he had experimented with abroad.
02:27But he merged them with the simple yet elegant forms of ancient Mexican art that he had grown
02:32passionate for after his travels.
02:35On the walls of an important government building, Diego painted the history of his country.
02:42He painted the struggle of the Mexican people to break free from the Spanish king.
02:48He also painted the fight that took place many years later when farmers and workers
02:53defended themselves against greedy men who were taking advantage of them.
02:59Diego painted his country's dances and traditions, such as la Zandunga, a love dance from the
03:05coastal area and the dance of Los Listons, a ribbon dance from the south.
03:11He wanted to celebrate the things that were special to Mexico and wanted Mexicans from
03:16all distant parts of the land to learn about their culture and feel proud.
03:22Diego lived to be an old man.
03:24By the time he passed away, he had created many wonderful artworks and was celebrated
03:30by people in Mexico as well as around the world.
03:34But if he were alive today, what would he paint?
03:38Would he paint the way we dress and live?
03:41Would he paint the way we play?
03:44Would he paint the big city?
03:47As he painted the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan?
03:51Or would he paint students at their desks?
03:55Just as he painted factory workers in the production line?
03:59Maybe Diego would paint shops at the mall as he painted street vendors selling flores?
04:05Or would he paint the luchadors wrestling in their costumes?
04:10Just as he painted the Aztec warriors fighting the invading soldiers the Spanish conquistadores?
04:17Would Diego paint our craze for monsters and creatures from outer space as he painted the
04:22god Quetzalcoatl the feathered serpent?
04:26Diego's murals teach us about the past.
04:30But they also show a better future for common people.
04:35Diego imagined everyone men and women boys and girls of all ages and nationalities living
04:40together and caring for one another.
04:43Today Diego is not around to make this happen.
04:47So it is up to us to make our own murals and being them to life.
04:52The End.