The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera by Betram D. Wolfe

Description

Diego Rivera as only a close friend could paint him. Bertram D. Wolfe knew Diego Rivera intimately — the two co-wrote books together — and The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, first published in 1963, is the classic biography that resulted: vivid, affectionate, and unsparing about a man as outsized as his murals.

Wolfe follows Rivera from his childhood in Guanajuato through the bohemian ferment of Paris, where the young Mexican absorbed Cubism, to his emergence as the great muralist of the Mexican Revolution. Along the way come the politics that shaped every brushstroke — including the famous destruction of his Rockefeller Center mural — and the tempestuous marriage to Frida Kahlo, itself one of the great love stories of twentieth-century art.

The essential first biography of Rivera, written from inside the friendship. Read it before the Kahlo books: this is the world — and the man — she married into.

The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera by Betram D. Wolfe

The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera is a vivid, intimate biography of one of the giants of modern art, written by Bertram D. Wolfe — a close friend of the artist who co-wrote two books with him. First published in 1963, this classic life story follows Diego Rivera from his childhood in Guanajuato through his bohemian years in Paris and his rise as Mexico’s greatest muralist.

Wolfe paints an engrossing portrait of a man as large as his murals: the cubist painter who became a revolutionary, the Communist intellectual whose beliefs shaped every brushstroke, the husband whose passionate marriage to Frida Kahlo became the stuff of legend. From the giant public frescoes that told Mexico’s history to the controversy that destroyed his Rockefeller Center mural in New York, this book captures an artist who put art in service of the people.

Inside This Biography

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• The muralist movement: how Rivera turned vast walls into living history lessons for Mexico.
• Paris and New York years: the avant-garde circles and the clashes with the titans of industry.
• Love and politics: the complex bond with Frida Kahlo and a life lived entirely in public.

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Richly detailed and deeply human, this ebook is essential reading for lovers of art, biography, and Mexican history — and for anyone drawn to outsized lives that changed the world of art forever. Wolfe’s firsthand knowledge gives every chapter warmth, insight, and the ring of truth.