We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
About Diego Rivera
Product Description A biography of the noted Mexican muralist discusses his art, his political ties and beliefs, and his marriage to the painter Frida Kahlo Amazon.com Review In another life, before becoming one of the best known and most popular journalists in New York and the author of the bestselling memoir A Drinking Life, Pete Hamill studied art on the GI Bill in Mexico City. Upon seeing the monumental work of José Clemente Orozco, however, he abruptly lost his nerve: "It seemed an act of self-delusion to try to be a painter." After 44 years, Hamill has found a way to integrate his early affair with art, his lifelong love of Mexico, and his narrative gifts in this riveting and lushly illustrated book on Diego Rivera, Mexico's best-known, widely loved muralist. Hamill's text, he says, was completed before the publication of Patrick Marnham's Dreaming with His Eyes Open: A Life of Diego Rivera. This one is less scholarly but respectably researched, and Hamill's fervent opinions on which of Rivera's works are worthy and which are the sad effluvia of a Communist Party hack are remarkably persuasive. Hamill's esthetic judgment has led him to avoid reproducing any second-rate clunkers. He has chosen the great murals, paintings, and drawings that suit the godlike stature of this outsize artist who lied, cheated, womanized, and evaded responsibility his entire life, but who worked like a demon in the service of his art. Rivera's shabby genteel childhood; his flight to France during the 10-year Mexican Revolution, during which nearly a tenth of his countrymen died; his callous abandonment of his first wife; his ugly political gambits and high-flown society contacts; his ultimately sad relationships with both men and women--Hamill weaves it all into a fantastic read. The book is not as balanced as Dreaming with His Eyes Open, but is nonetheless a passionate first look at an artist whose complicated life will probably still be examined decades from now. --Peggy Moorman From Library Journal Hamill, former editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News and the New York Post, has lived, worked, and studied art in Mexico. This lively, if not definitive, biography of the pioneering Mexican muralist recounts the king-sized Rivera's real-life escapades without romantic embellishment and with a critical eye. In particular, Hamill is suspect of the seemingly universal admiration for Rivera's "narcissist" wife, artist Frida Kahlo. Coming on the heels of renewed scholarly interest in Rivera and the Mexican muralist movement, Hamill's work must inevitably compete with other studies. It relies more on secondary sources than Patrick Marnham's dependable, more thoroughly researched Dreaming with His Eyes Open (LJ 10/1/98), which it could serve to complement. With 100 very fine illustrations, 50 of which are in color; suitable for large library systems. [BOMC selection.]AMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., M. -AMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., MD Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review Hamill, who studied art in Mexico when he as a young man, writes authoritatively about Rivera's work and diverse styles. -- The New York Times Book Review, Carolyn T. Hughes
