Diego Rivera. Agrarian Leader Zapata. 1931.

In 1931, when New York’s fledgling Museum of Modern Art was planning the second solo exhibition of its short history, Diego Rivera may not have seemed an obvious candidate. The Mexican artist was a flamboyant socialist, famous for painting what Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Russian poet, called “the world’s first communist murals”. Just 45 years old, he was also young for the honor.

But in many ways, the match between MoMA and the muralist made perfect sense. Here was an artist who could make headlines; exactly what a new museum needed. He was Mexican at a time when American galleries were eager to embrace a culture closer to home, instead of endlessly courting artists from Europe. And in Depression-era New York, Rivera’s socially engaged art had particular resonance.

Now a thoughtfully conceived exhibition at MoMA has brought together for the first time five of the eight portable frescoes Rivera created specifically for the 1931 show, along with enough additional material to build an absorbing picture of the artist and his era.

Leah Dickerman, the show’s curator, hopes the exhibition “tells several different stories.” The first story, undoubtedly, is that of Rivera himself, and how an artist commissioned by Mexico’s post-revolutionary government to paint nationalist murals achieved international fame. The luminous frescoes and bold preparatory drawings on display show the skill of a fine draftsman and colorist. Rivera was acquainted with the frescoes of the Renaissance, and able with the sweep of a line to create intense moments of movement and drama.

But Rivera was also a larger-than-life personality, with a talent for winning over wealthy patrons without sacrificing his socialist credentials. For the 1931 show, he delivered works on the expected Mexican theme (such as an iconographic image of Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary, and an Aztec warrior stabbing a Spanish conquistador), and added frescoes that contained stinging critiques of American capitalism.

Read more at The Economist

Interactive Exhibition: Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art

Read more about Rivera’s time in New York City at the New York Times

Diego Rivera at MoMA from November 13, 2011–May 14, 2012