30/3/2000
Diego Rivera
Helsinski City Art Museum, Helsinki
The exhibition will be an extensive presentation of the art and
life of this colourful artist, including drawings, oils, water
colours, gouaches and pastels, and a wide collection of
Rivera's correspondence, sketch books, newspaper
clippings and other documentary material. In addition, there
will be some 50 photographs of Diego Rivera and his wife
Frida Kahlo, some of which were taken by renowned
photographers such as Manuel Alvarez Bravo. There will also
be large and impressive photographic reproductions of
Rivera's murals in Mexico and the United States.
Diego Rivera was fond of telling stories and some of them
have become legends about his own life. However, it is
known that in his youth Rivera was a member of the circle of
artists in Montparnasse in Paris, together with Picasso and
others. After his return to Mexico in the early 1920s, Rivera, in
collaboration with other young artists, sought to build a new
Mexican identity and society through their art. Rivera is
famous for his monumental murals whose motifs range from
Mexico's history to its daily life. These murals combine
European modernism with Mexico's folk traditions and the
myths of its indigenous peoples.
Diego Rivera is one of Mexico's national artists. The works in
the exhibition are on loan from museums and private
collections in Mexico, the United States and Europe. The
Rivera exhibition forms a part of the Helsinki City Art
Museum's series of shows on Mexican art. In 1997, the
Museum presented an exhibition of the works of Frida Kahlo,
Rivera's wife, which was attended by a record crowd of
103,000 visitors.
The Diego Rivera exhibition is curated by Christina Burrus of
France. It is organized in collaboration with Kunstforeningen
(Copenhagen) and Kulturhuset (Stockholm). The exhibition
was made possible by our partners, Instituto Nacional de
Bellas Artes (INBA), the Mexican Embassy in Helsinki and
Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc. in New York City.
Helsinki City Art Museum's Tennis Palace galleries
Helsinki,
FI Finland