Diego Rivera at MoMA

With the exhibition Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA (New York, USA) reunites five "portable murals"-freestanding frescoes with bold images commemorating events in Mexican history -that were made for a monographic exhibition of the artist's work at the Museum in 1931.

The exhibition features three eight-foot working drawings, a prototype "portable mural" made in 1930, as well as smaller working drawings, watercolors, and prints by Rivera. It also includes design drawings for his infamous Rockefeller Center mural, a project Rivera began to discuss with the Rockefellers while in residence at the Museum.

Working around the clock with three assistants, Rivera produced five "portable murals" -large blocks of frescoed plaster, concrete, and steel that feature bold images commemorating Mexican history and addressing themes of revolution and class inequity. After the exhibition's opening, Rivera added three more murals, now taking on New York subjects through monumental images of the urban working class and the social stratification of the city during the Great Depression. All eight were on display for the duration of the exhibition's run; the first of these panels, Agrarian Leader Zapata, later joined MoMA's collection, and is now a familiar icon on the Museum's walls.

The five murals from the 1931 retrospective that will be on view in Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art are: Agrarian Leader Zapata (1931), Indian Warrior (1931), The Uprising (1931), Frozen Assets (1932), and Electric Power (1932). The three remaining murals in the series are Liberation of the Peon (1931), Sugar Cane (1931), and Pneumatic Drilling (1932). 

Date: until May 14.
Location: Museo of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53 Street. New York, NY 10019. USA.
Opening hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10.30 to 5.30pm. Fridays from 10.30 to 8pm.

See some of the murals in the following slideshow: