Understanding The Work of Mexican Painter, Diego Rivera

This work contains a great amount of symbolism and and meaning, because it is a reflection of the feelings of the author and a cause he cannot put into words. The figures represented in this painting are that of a woman, sitting in the center ; 3 men standing on the right ; 3 other men on the left ; and a woman in the clouds. The figures are depicted in typical clothing, except for the woman enveloped in a cloud, whom is wearing none. The rich colors that are used for the dirt and the faces of the people give a feeling of warmth and trust. While the distant mountains and structures are depicted in cooler colors that create a sense of distance, yet also of an incoming horizon. The painting is rich in archaeological detail and painted in a sharply outlined, linear style.

The woman that is in the center of the paining represents the goddess, Xilonen. Xilonen is the Nahuatl goddess of corn, she is carrying this in her arms in the painting and is surrounded by it. The bundles of corn she is holding are meant to be her gift to the indigenous land workers that are being abused by the clergy, government and military. The second woman in the painting, is in a cloud, she is flying over the three men on the left, and she is carrying a thunderbolt. This thunderbolt she is aiming at the criminal trinity. In this case the criminal trinity is the clergy, the military and the capitalists. They are the enemies of the Mexican towns, and so the woman represents justice, because she punishes those that hurt the people. She takes care of her own. Her fury is well represented in the dark red color of the cloud and the bright orange in the thunderbolt. The dark sky around her adds intensity and emphasizes on this part of the painting. The land workers are represented by a small figure in the background. Also in the background there is the industrialization and machinery of the new era. Just as it is placed, the figures are meant to create a background to what is happening to the laborers work, they are slowly being replaced by machines.

Rivera expresses his feelings very well in this painting, his mood and ideas can be clearly read in the image. He emphasizes on justice and how it will come to be, how they will be taken care of. He shows the power of the popular class over the elite class. After all is said and done, in the end the poor class wins over its oppressors. This securely states his Revolutionary ideals, his belief in the power of the people. He intends to give hope to the lower classes by expressing how the gods will protect them and the high class will come to justice. He shows the lack of faith the working class has now that they are being mistreated, and that their faith will soon be restored. Rivera goes back to his Mexican roots, he rescues culture through the Nahuatl gods he depicts and the power he bestow on them in his painting, he also reminds us of the people closest to our past ancestors, the working class.

Evidently Riveras work is successful. He evokes an extremely expressive emotionalism. He emits great thought and deep feeling in his work. The ideals he depicts are those of power, justice, truth and religion. The power of the gods over the people and how they will bring justice for them, the love for agriculture, and the greatness of the gods he represents. The painting is a clear reflection of his feelings and the history behind them. It is obvious the painting emits the feelings of the author and it creates feelings for the observer. It makes the observer realize the strength of justice, it wakens a sense of revolution. This alone creates a successful work of art, when the viewer perceives the authors feelings and emotions. He truly made a successful work of art in the Mecanizacin del Campo.

Diego Rivera was a Mexican artist that did not have to die to become well known, he was the most prominent painter of the modern Mexican mural movement. He lived in Europe for 14 years, specifically in Paris or the City of Arts, there he was influenced by the art of Giotto and Francisco Goya as well as by modern artists, notably Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre Auguste Renoirhe. He came back to Mexico in 1921, he became committed to a new popular art movement based on large mural works depicting contemporary Mexican life. He lived through the postwar of the Mexican Revolution, and so it was a great influence on his paintings. He was very concerned for politics, he painted more ideologically oriented and realistically rendered murals as he moved on. He expressed his feelings in this and many other paintings. He was a communist, which he also demonstrated. He created this work during February and March of 1923, 2 years after his return to Mexico.

Riveras style definitely reflected his nationalistic and communist ideals. He expresses his feelings towards Mexico and the social problems that is has gone through at the time. Diego Rivera defends the lower classes, because of the immense power that is given to the higher ones. He uses symbolism to depict his thoughts, and his style was molded by socio-economic influences of the time.

These type of declarations were terrible to make due to the time in which Rivera lived. He realized his paintings and murals during a time in which Mexico was in revolution. His thoughts and ideas were not accepted, as were his political views. Yet it is this same element that created his paintings of protest. Since there is great influence in his life from the Revolution his paintings were unique because of the ideas they carried with them. The protest for the rights of the working class, and an affrontation to the unbalanced government.