Diego Rivera: Mexican Muralist

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-- Diego Rivera's professional life as a painter was full of drama, but his personal life as a man can hardly be contained in a book. Hargrove, however, achieves some success with this brief introduction to one of the most amazing and powerful personalities of 20th-century art. He retells the artist's life with a tone of detached understatement. He adds a comprehensive timeline, placing Rivera's life against world events; thorough endnotes; and an extensive index. Hargrove does not delve deeply into Diego's personal life, contenting himself with highlights. Even at that, Rivera's life was breathtakingly flamboyant. He had four wives and endless love affairs. He espoused the ideals of communism in answer to the sickening disparity between Mexico's rich and poor classes, but even the Communist Party excommunicated him. This book has two major flaws. Hargrove's dispassion in describing the escapades of Rivera and the gifted lunatics surrounding him begins to sound like lack of interest. And the 21 black-and-white photographs are simply a failure, as only 9 show the man's art and they're so small that they can't do him justice. Readers will clamor to see the work that made this fascinating man so sought-after, so controversial, so loved, so despised. --Ruth Semrau, Lovejoy School, Allen, TX