James D. Cockcroft

Diego Rivera is a book by Chelsea House Publishing in thier series Hispanics of Achievement. The book is a biography of the revered Mexican muralist, linking politics and ideologies to art. The book's contents ouline the chapters with titles that are vague and not much help in anticipating the course of the biography. Before Rivera's tale begins, there is a six-page introduction written by Rodolfo Cardona, one of the book's consulting editors. It is in the introduction that Cardona makes a case for learning about Hispanic culture. He ennumerates the influences of Hispanics and Spanish on the United States in the arena of law, language, education, art and music. Loosely speaking, it is a soft sell on why you should read this book/series of books.
Rivera's life and art is very much viewed through a political lens. The book goes into detail about Mexican history, politics, revolution, as well as the politics of World War II and the ebb and flow of communism. The book shows Diego turing from European-style painting in search of his own voice. As he does this in his art, he also does this in politics. The book mentions the infamous contorvery of Lenin's likeness in the mural of the RCA building. This mural is placed in context by information about Lenin, the communist movement and why Rivera adopted this particular philosophy. Even the beliefs of his father are expoused in Rivera's painting of Open Air School. The book also mentions great Mexican heros like Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. These are figures that appear in the art work selected for the book.
After the biography, there is a brief chronology, further readings and index. No references or selected bibliographies are featured. However, in the text, there are some efforts made to reference or authenticate information by announcing the source the quote or information came from in text. For example, Cockcroft writes " 'The center of my mural' River wrote in his autobiography 'shows the skilled laborer...'" Cockcroft also prefaces quotes with phrases like "In a radio interview" and "In an April 1967 article in the New York Times." Further bolstering confidence in the accuracy of the book is the brief but informative biographies of the authors of the book. Their academic and professional carreers postion them as credible writers.
There are many photos and paintings displayed throughout the book. These are accompanied by informative discriptions of the work and additional information linking the painting or photo to an idea or event. However, some of the photos and paintings are rather small, and too many are black and white, detracting from the power of the art. Perhaps a factor is that the book was copyrighted in 1991. I would love to see an updated version of this book with colored photos and artwork.… (meer)