Discussions On Alegoria De California

Discussions on "Alegoria de California"

Diego Rivera is consider by many one of the most important artist of North America. He had a post-modern style and was a classicist and simplified style. His major subjects where the earth, the farmer, the laborer. His goal was to take art to the big public. He wanted to bring social content to the people. When Most people think of Diego Rivera they attribute him to the paintings he did in Mexico, and do not even know that he has done some wonderful frescos in America.

His first fresco in the United States was "Allegoria de California" and was paid by architects of the new pacific Stock Exchange building $2,500. The Location of the Fresco is on the stairwell leading to the Luncheon Club of the San Francisco's Stock Exchange. This was at a time when some of his oil paintings were going for $1500 each so his fee was far from overpriced. It is not considered the most beautiful painting of Riveras by any means but it is a classic because the complexity of the image's meanings. The title of piece is true to its name Alegoria displays an Allegory: a meaning other then the literal translation. There have been thousands of people that have walked by this mural and thought it was a display of California riches, but when you look further you see a much more rich meaning. There have been many oppositions against Diego Rivera's fresco, but I believe it is a classic of Diego Rivera's Genius.

In Order to begin the Fresco, Diego Rivera had to be allowed to enter the United States. By 1930 Diego Rivera had been kicked out of the Mexican Communist party and was investigated by the U.S. State Department. It was difficult for Rivera to obtain a visa into the U.S. After some pulling of strings from San Francisco Elite he was able to obtain a visa. News of his arrival in San Francisco created a uproar against the artist."Editorial writers, second by local painters, any one of whom would have liked the commission himself, wrote bitter anti-Rivera editorials"(Helm 51).

Rudolph Hess an art critic:

"I should say that the predominant characteristic is conscious showmanship. He is the P.T. Barnum of Mexico. Possessed of tremendous poise, he approaches the scaffold as a statesman would approach a platform from which to deliver and oration. He dominates his audience and his Ð''stage' with the easy confidence of an experienced actor. His oration he delivers by translating it into terms of form and color, and stating it on the walls"(Art Digest)

Rudolph Hess was saying to the art communiy that he was just showman to the public, a fake a fraud he brought everyone into his fraud with him. He try to make him out to be joke by calling him the P.T. Barnum of Mexico.

In the book Modern Mexican Painters the author Mackinley Helm thought it was a very important piece but confessed, "I do not myself think that the stock exchange murals could be called beautiful, and I defend myself for raising the point on the ground that Rivera himself subscibe to the Manifesto of 1922, a document which expressly said that the "supreme objective" of the artist was to create beauty for alls, beauty that enlightens and stirs to struggle."(Helm 52) The author that is was not a completely aestically appealing but thought what it lack in beauty it gained in the fact that it enlighten the mind. This is the opinion that