Tomorrow is the little - known vacation National Dance Day , which coincides with this hebdomad ’s observance of National Dance Week . Today then is a good day to featureDiego Rivera(1886 - 1957 ) and his " Baile en Tehauntepec . “ The Mexican artist , who was deliver Diego MarÃa de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y RodrÃguez , was request by reader AMT .
1.In America , Diego Rivera is known for his 1933 mural for Rockefeller Center , " military personnel at the Crossroads . “ Rivera was friendly with the Rockefeller category , which lead to his commission , but he upset them ( and much of the press and public ) by his inclusion of Vladimir Lenin in the picture . He was ordered to discontinue painting and the mural was hide from the public ; it was knap off the bulwark on February 9 , 1934 . Later , Rivera created a variation of the mural in Mexico City ’s Palace of Fine Arts with the new title , " Man , Controller of the Universe . “He reportedly include a portrait of John D. Rockefeller at a club , with " syphilis bacterium floating above his head word . “
2.As a child , Rivera was nickname " the engineer" for his fascination with trains and other motorcar . This interest is reflect in some of his body of work , most notably hisDetroit Industryfrescoesin the Detroit Institute of Arts . Commissioned by the Fords , the painting depict U.S. industrial living , with a focus on Detroit ’s car plant workers . Although Rivera considered it the most successful work of his career , the local newspaper did not respond very favourably : they described the works as " uncouth in conception " ¦ foolishly vulgar " ¦ a slander to Detroit workmen” ¦ “ and even " un - American . “Henry Ford ’s son Edsel replied to the controversy with the childlike statement , " I admire Rivera ’s life . I really think he was attempt to express his idea of the sprightliness of Detroit .
3 . One of Rivera ’s last works , the 1952 paint " Nightmare of War , Dream of Peace,“ disappeared more than 50 years ago , an unbelievable feat since the wall painting is 40 feet long by 10 metrical unit high . The Mexican government had ask Rivera to give rise a piece of work to represent Mexico at a globular expo , a asking Rivera accepted , saying he would paint a wall painting " dedicate to peace . “ His final product depicts " a benevolent Mao and Stalin" attempt to reach a pacification agreement with " a sour - looking Uncle Sam" flanked by representatives from England and France . The authorities resist to parade the workplace due to its anti - American motif . The work is rumour to have been given to Mao by Rivera in the fifties and then to have been destroyed by Mao , though other rumors place it in Moscow or Poland .
4.Rivera was a bit of a ladies ' military man . He hook up with four times , to three dissimilar women . ( He married Frida Kahlo twice . ) One of his long - term lovers is sometimes also referred to as his common - law married woman . With his wife and lover , he sire several baby , and purportedly abandoned all of them . His marriage to Frida Kahlo , about 20 years his Jnr , gain him the most notoriety , though . Rivera is often tell to have been opprobrious to Frida ; he himself stated,“If I ever lie with a cleaning woman , the more I loved her , the more I wanted to pain her . Frida was only the most obvious dupe of this disgusting trait . “Yet one of Rivera ’s tyke , Guadalupe , refutes the title her sire was abusive , stating , " It has been tell that my Church Father made Frida suffer and I can assure you " ¦ Frida made my forefather suffer . “
