1886: Born
José Diego María and twin brother
José Carlos María Rivera Barrientos
born in Guanajuato, Mexico. (Jose Carlos dies
in 1888.)
1892: Family moves to Mexico City.
1898-1905: Rivera attends Academia
de San Carlos in Mexico City.
1906: Exhibits 26 works at the annual
exhibition of the San Carlos Academy.
1907: Begins 14-year stay in Europe.
1909: Meets Russian artist Angelina
Beloff in Brussels, who later becomes his common-law
wife.
1910: Exhibits at Society of Independent
Artists in Paris. Returns to Mexico and exhibits
at San Carlos Academy in November. Witnesses
outbreak of Mexican Revolution (1910-20).
1911: Returns to Paris.
1913: Paints first Cubist works and
exhibits at Autumn Salon.
1914: First one-man exhibition in Paris
at BertheWeill Gallery. Travels to Barcelona
and Madrid.
1915: Returns to Paris and begins relationship
with Russian artist Marevna Vorobyov-Stebelska.
1916: Exhibits at the Modern Gallery,
New York. Son Diego Jr. born to Angelina Beloff.
1917: Son Diego dies. Rivera breaks
with Picasso and Cubists in Paris.
1919: Meets David Alfaro Siqueiros
and discusses need for change in Mexican art.
Daughter Marika born in Paris to Marevna Vorobyov-Stebelska.
1920: Rivera travels through Italy.
1921: Rivera returns to Mexico.
1922: Begins his first mural, in the
Simón Bolívar Auditorium of the
National Preparatory School. Marries Guadalupe
Marin. Co-founds the Union of Revolutionary
Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists and
joins the Mexican Communist Party.
1923: Begins frescoes in the Ministry
of Education (SEP).
1924: Daughter Guadalupe born.
1925: Begins to paint frescoes at National
School of Agriculture at Chapingo. Flower Day
included in Pan American exhibition at Los Angeles
County Museum of Art; wins purchase prize.
1927: Invited to Soviet Union in the
Autumn to take part in the celebration of the
10th anniversary of the October Revolution.
Daughter Ruth born.
1928: On his return from Soviet Union,
separates from Lupe Marín. Finishes work
in SEP building and at Chapingo.
1929: Marries Frida Kahlo. Begins to
paint walls in National Palace of Fine Arts
in Mexico City. Appointed director of upper
school of San Carlos Academy of Art, though
soon dismissed after proposing numerous curriculum
changes. Expelled from the Mexican Communist
Party.
1930-31: Paints mural in Luncheon Club
of San Francisco Pacific Stock Exchange and
another in California School of Fine Arts. Newly
opened Museum of Modern Art in New York gives
him a large retrospective that sets a new attendance
record for the museum.
1932: Begins murals in Detroit Institute
of Arts.
1933: Begins to paint a mural at Rockefeller
Center in New York, that results in suspension
of project and complete destruction of unfinished
wallpainting. Rivera and Kahlo return to Mexico
to new residence in San Angel.
1934: Executes the mural originally
planned for Rockefeller Center in new form in
the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.
1935: Completes murals in stairwell
of National Palace, left unfinished since 1930.
1937: Receives exiled Russian revolutionary
Leon Trotsky and his wife Natalia Sedova
1938: André Breton stays with
Rivera during his visit to Mexico.
1939: Trotsky and Rivera part ways
after many disputes. Rivera and Kahlo separate.
1940: Paints ten murals in San Francisco
for the Golden Gate International Exposition,
and while in San Francisco marries Frida Kahlo
for the second time. Unjustly implicated in
assassination of Trotsky.
1946: Large-size mural commissioned
for new Hotel del Prado in Mexico City.
1947: With José Clemente Orozco
and David Alfaro Siqueiros, forms the Instituto
Nacional de Bellas Artes Commission for Mural
Painting.
1949: 50th anniversary of his career
marked by comprehensive exhibition organized
by INBA at Museum of the Palace of Fine Arts
in Mexico City.
1950: Awarded National Prize for Plastic
Arts.
1954: Takes part with Frida Kahlo in
a solidarity rally for government of Jacobo
Arbenz in Guatemala. Kahlo dies in July. In
September, his application to rejoin Mexican
Communist Party is accepted.
1955: Marries publisher Emma Hurtado
in July. Diagnosed with cancer and takes a trip
to Soviet Union at end of year to undergo medical
treatment for the cancer.
1956: Returns to Mexico, recuperating
at home of friend Dolores Olmedo. National homage
on occasion of Rivera's 70th birthday.
1957: Dies of heart attack on November
24. |
Timeline