Diego Rivera: The Complete Murals

The German publisher Taschen is known for its lavish art books, and they have truly outdone themselves with Diego Rivera: The Complete Murals. This book was originally published in 2008, but I am reviewing the 2019 edition, and I’m not sure what if any changes were made between editions. Buying a used copy of the out-of-print first edition would cost you hundreds of dollars, but this re-release is surprisingly affordable for its mammoth size (roughly 10 x 15 inches and 10 pounds), especially when Amazon is selling it at under half of Taschen’s list price.Prior to this book, the most comprehensive guide to Rivera’s murals was Diego Rivera: A Retrospective by Linda Bank Downs, et al., an excellent book that covers all aspects of Rivera’s life and career, including an admirably extensive 98-page section on his murals. While that earlier book includes explanatory numbered diagrams of multi-panel mural schemes, The Complete Murals expands upon that strategy to a much higher level of detail by accompanying such diagrams with close-up shots of almost every panel, as well as many preparatory drawings. While a few of Rivera’s murals have been featured in in-depth, heavily illustrated studies of their own, such as Downs’s Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals, The Complete Murals is the most comprehensive compendium of images and information on Rivera’s entire career as a muralist.I’ve seen about half of Rivera’s murals in person and can attest that they have never looked better in print than they do here. The abundance of close-up details amounts to such extensive coverage that it is sure to render obsolete the photo albums of even the most obsessive of Mexico City vacationers. The clarity and color accuracy of the images is better than what you can view on the internet, and the size of the reproductions, some of which fold out to a four-page spread, may even be larger than your computer monitor. The selection of images goes beyond the frequently photographed masterpieces to include lesser-known murals that have not seen much coverage in previous books, such as Glorious Victory, Rivera’s critical commentary on U.S. intervention in Guatemala.In addition to all its beautiful photographs, this book is also a well-researched scholarly monograph, complete with extensive notes and bibliography. The text by authors Luis-Martín Lozano and Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera is very detailed and informative (though the fact that it is set in 5-point type is unforgivably inconsiderate to the reader). Their pet topic is Rivera’s use of Masonic and Rosicrucian symbolism, a thesis that they push farther than most Rivera fans will care, but they also provide much valuable background information on the creation of Rivera’s murals. In particular, one learns a great deal about Rivera’s tempestuous relationship with the Communist party and how his murals reflect his evolving political views. Following the murals there is a brief chapter on Rivera’s easel painting, which is a subject better covered in other books, but here provides an opportunity for more beautiful illustrations. The book closes with a detailed chronology of Rivera’s life accompanied by thumbnail images of many obscure works in various media.This book is a must-have for any lover of Mexican murals and Diego Rivera’s art, and for what you’re getting the price is more than reasonable. As far as coffee-table books go, Diego Rivera: The Complete Murals and Downs’s aforementioned Diego Rivera: A Retrospective are the two books essential to getting an authoritative visual overview of Rivera’s multifaceted career.

My dreams have come true!! This book, which formerly was something I could not afford in the super jumbo size, has another life!! Taschen has outdone itself with bringing Diego Rivera and all of his masterpieces to us in this wonderful new volume!! The size is perfect, at first I thought maybe it was too narrow, but the height makes it work, on looking through it the first time. His genius at color and composition and the richness of the story line is mesmerizing!! It seems to me in his case, more is more, is very effective, with these huge murals. Definitely a man of the people, for the 99%!! And there is his wonderful wife, and equally brilliant artist, Frida Kahlo on the cover, where she should be, and luckily they had some time together, sadly cut short by her horrendous health, as a result of some very unfortunate luck. We are richer that they both existed, and the magnificent art they left us we will cherish forever!! I can see that I will need to go through this monograph a number of times to completely take it all in, such a jewel of a book . The fold out pages are especially brilliant and mind boggling. The book appears so dream like, but it is real, Taschen , with it's reputation of providing high quality art at an extremely affordable price, has another hit on it's hands!! Bravo!!!

This is, as others have expressed, a masterfully done book full of Diego Rivera's best and lesser-known artworks. I have not seen any of Rivera's works in person, but I imagine that this is the next best thing currently out there. The dimensions of the book are quite large and it is a heavy book, so make sure you have a nice, safe place to put it before purchasing. Most likely this will be at the very top of a bookshelf, as it probably won't fit inside the bookshelf itself.I do have one complaint and it has to do with the spread of Rivera's mural "Ancient Mexico". There is a nice, two-page spread of the mural. However, the focal point of the mural, Quetzalcóatl, is right in the middle of the two pages, making it so that he is barely visible because he is right at the dividing point of the two pages. It appears there was space to crop the photo so that this wouldn't have happened. Luckily, there is a single-page close-up of this particular part of the mural on one of the preceding pages, so this makes up for the aforementioned two-page spread problem a little.It should go without saying for anybody familiar with Diego Rivera's artwork and views that his paintings are more than just pretty artwork. They are full of imagery and history-telling, often with a political and, at times, idealistic inclination. As is common in Mexican history-telling, these depictions can be full of romanticism, demonization, caricature, exaggeration and violence. Be prepared to see all of these things in Rivera's artwork.I could not type this review without mentioning the coverage in this book of Rivera's obra maestra, "La Gran Tenochtitlán" ("The Great City of Tenochtitlán"). It's here and the layouts are done perfectly. There is a full two-page spread that folds out on both sides. There are also close-ups of different parts of the mural, which is also done for other murals in the book. And yes, all of his other major, well-known murals are in the book and covered quite well. There are also hidden surprises - artworks of Rivera's that I had never seen before, but were also quite nice to look at.I'd be surprised if any book out there covers Diego Rivera's artwork so well. So, if you are looking for the book on his artwork with beautifully done layouts of them, this is the one to buy.

This book is a pure delight. It is full of photos and I love it.

Diego Rivera was an artist of genius; this book contains beautiful reproductions of all his murals in brilliant colours, often with fold-out pages to show the full context, offering hours of pleasure at the coffee table.

Muy buen costo, las imágenes están perfectas y la explicación también

Es un libro precioso, totalmente recomendable para los amantes de las obras De Diego Rivera

Esta nova edição do livro esta perfeita com formato mais fácil de manusear e consultar. Livro indispensável para quem quer conhecer a história e a arte da America Latina. Recomendo com entusiasmo

Just gorgeous. I was in love with this book for a long time. When I saw that the price dropped to nearly half of the price I didn’t think twice. Great quality and captures well the work of Rivera. It is hard to capture the magnitude of his work in a book, but it does a good job taking into account the challenge.