Diego Rivera was born in the Mexican city of Guanajuato. He was a twin the first two years of his life until his brother, Jose Carlos, died in 1888. Diego began painting at age three when his father covered parts of the house with paper so he could paint on the walls. He moved to Mexico City with his family in 1892 and studied at the San Carlos Fine Arts Academy and in the carving workshop of artist José Guadalupe Posada. He was expelled from the academy in 1902 however when he started participating in student revolts.

In 1907 he had his first exposition, which was a great success and earned him a government scholarship to continue his art education in Spain at the San Fernando de Madrid School. From there he travelled to France, Belgium, Holland and Great Britain, between 1908 and 1910, until he finally settled in Paris in 1911. Diego was introduced to the post-Impressionists at this time and was heavily influenced by Picasso, Cubism, Gauguin and Paul Cezanne. During this time he painted and drew non stop and began associating with a variety of Parisian artists including Modigliani, and Soutine. In 1920 he left Paris for Italy to study the Renaissance frescos and the mural techniques of Giotto, then headed back to Mexico in 1921. He soon began painting murals and being commissioned for works of art. His fame grew, until he not only became a leader of a new Mexican art movement but a political leader as well, as he joined the Communist Party in 1923 and remained a member until 1930.

In 1928 he met the painter Frida Kahlo and they married the following year. During the early part of the 1930’s he had an exhibition in New York and was then commissioned to paint murals at the Detroit Art Institute and the Rockefeller Center in New York. He came under criticism while working on the Rockefeller mural however as one of his figures was the Communist Lenin. Diego was asked to change the mural, he refused, and the mural was then destroyed by the Rockefeller Center. (Diego eventually reproduced the mural for the Fine Arts Palace in Mexico City.)

After the mural incident in New York, Diego returned to Mexico, where he continued to paint. He divorced Frida in 1939 only to remarry two years later. In 1948 he finished a mural in Mexico on which he put the words “God does not exist”. A scandal resulted and the work was not shown to the public for another nine years. His wife Frida died in July of 1954, which caused Diego great pain. Although he slipped in and out of depression he continued to paint excessively. In 1955 Diego was diagnosed with cancer and in 1957, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his right arm. He continued painting throughout the ordeal and even took on one of his most ambitious projects: an epic mural based on Mexico’s history for the National Palace. On November 25 he died, leaving his last masterpiece unfinished.