Diego Rivera's 125th birth anniversary - Diego Rivera's 125th birth anniversary celebrated by Google

Diego Rivera's 125th birth anniversary celebrated by Google

Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato, Guanajuato, to a well-to-do family. Rivera was descended from Spanish nobility on his father’s side. Diego had a twin brother named Carlos, who died two years after they were born. From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. He was sponsored to continue study in Europe by Teodoro A. Dehesa Méndez, the governor of the State of Veracruz.

Diego Rivera

Born: December 8, 1886

Guanajuato, Mexico

Died: November 25, 1957

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexican painter

Diego Rivera was one of most popular painters of Mexico. He rebelled against the traditional school of painting and developed a style that combined historical, social, and political ideas. His great body of work reflects cultural changes taking place in Mexico and around the world during the turbulent twentieth century.

-- Google Doodle today celebrates the 125th birth anniversary of legendary Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico, Rivera's large wall works in fresco are believed to have helped establish the Mexican Mural Movement.

Rivera joined Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City at the age of ten to study art. Later he moved to Europe where he initially studied inMadrid, Spain, and from there went to Paris, France, to live and work with the artists in Montparnasse.

A communist, Rivera was greatly inspired by the political ideals of the Mexican Revolution (1914-15) and the Russian Revolution (1917). Through his art, he sought to reflect the lives of the working class and native people of Mexico.

Under a government programme in 1921, he started a series of murals in public buildings. During 1930s and 1940s, Rivera painted several murals in the United States. Some of his works also created controversy. One of his mural made in CA building in New York City, known as Man at the Crossroads, featuring a portrait of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, was destroyed.

In 1929, Rivera married artist Frida Kahlo, who was some 20 years his junior. The two divorced in 1939, only to remarry later.