My Art, My Life

: An Autobiographyby Diego Rivera(10 total)

"Engrossing as a novel … throws a clear white light on one of the most spectacular artists of our time." — Chicago Sunday Tribune This remarkable autobiography began with a newspaper interview the artist gave journalist Gladys March

Characters

Diego Rivera (10)

The first thing I encountered on entering the museum was the earliest steam engine built in England. As I walked on, marveling at each successive mechanical wonder, I realized that I was witnessing the history of machinery, as if on parade, from its primitive beginnings to the present day, in all it…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

museum Engine Machinery History

I spent the two and one-half months between my meeting with the Art Commission and the beginning of my actual mural work in soaking up impressions of the productive activities of the city. I studied industrial scenes by night as well as by day, making literally thousands of sketches of towering blas…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Art Detroit Philosophy Industry

While working in California, I met William Valentiner and Edgar Richardson of the Detroit Institute of Arts. I mentioned a desire which I had to paint a series of murals about the industries of the United States, a series that would constitute a new kind of plastic poem, depicting in color and form…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Art Modern Art United States Murals Industry

I knew how one climbing the mountain of worldly success can slip down into the river below without being conscious of the descent till he is already drowning.

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Ethics Life Materialism Power Success

In my previous murals, I had tried to achieve a harmony in my painting with the architecture of the building. But to attempt such a harmony in the garden of the Institute would have defeated my purposes. For the walls here were of an intricate Italian baroque style, with little windows, heads of sat…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Architecture Art Murals harmony

I thought of the millions of different men by whose combined labor and thought automobiles were produced, from the miners who dug the iron ore out of the earth to the railroad men and teamsters who brought the finished machines to the consumer, so that man, space, and time might be conquered, and ev…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Labor Machinery Consumer

As I rode back to Detroit, a vision of Henry Ford's industrial empire kept passing before my eyes. In my ears, I heard the wonderful symphony which came from his factories where metals were shaped into tools for men's service. It was a new music, waiting for the composer with genius enough to give i…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Labor Industry Machinery Factory

Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Art Passion Pride Work

As an artist I have always tried to be faithful to my vision of life, and I have frequently been in conflict with those who wanted me to paint not what I saw but what they wished me to see.

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Artist Art Artisitic Vision Life Painting

From sunrise to sunset, I was in the forest, sometimes far from the house, with my goat who watched me as a mother does a child. All the animals in the forest became my friends, even dangerous and poisonous ones. Thanks to my goat-mother and my Indian nurse, I have always enjoyed the trust of animal…

— Diego Rivera, amazon.com

Animals Childhood Friendship Trust

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