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1931 Artist DIEGO RIVERA Signed Document, Declaration with Paints + Sculptures

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 - 2,000.00 USD
1931 Artist DIEGO RIVERA Signed Document, Declaration with Paints + Sculptures
Autographs
“Diego Rivera” Signed Document For a MOMA Exhibition
DIEGO RIVERA (1886–1957). Prominent Mexican Artist and Painter, the husband of Frida Kahlo.
November 5, 1931-Dated, Partially-Printed American Consulate Document Signed, “Diego Rivera,” several pages, measuring 8” x 12.5”, Choice Very Fine. This being his “Declaration” in Connection with Paints and Sculptures, Etc. detailing the artworks to be shown in Rivera’s retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City, being held in November 1931. Accompanied by an invoice and complete list of the works which include 24 oils, 175 drawings, 19 water colors and 8 litomontages. The complete list includes names of the works, dates complete, measurements, media and values.

This Official Consular Declaration is in wonderful original condition, with some trivial paper loss at top left from what appears to be prior staple removal. Also shows minor creases and corner loss, along with a small tear in upper right. Some of the works listed include La germinacion Chapingo, El Piloto, Montanas de Arizona, Sirena, Mujeres bordano, Jesus y Sn. Juan, El Toro, El amor and El Facista A.B.C. and the total works are given a value of $51,425. A remarkable and very rare Document showing Rivera’s historic introduction to the American public.


In July 1931 Fances Flynn Paine, an arts promoter and agent of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, arrived in Mexico to propose a retrospective of Rivera’s work and the Museum of Modern Art, an institution whose 1929 founding was due in large part to the efforts of Mrs. Rockefeller.

Paine also counseled Rockefeller to purchase some of Rivera’s paintings soon becoming the painter’s first paid agent. The MOMA exhibit, only the second in the museum’s short history devoted to the works of one artist, was hugely successful and made Rivera and his wife, artist Frida Kahlo, American celebrities. The following year Rivera was commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Arts to paint several murals.

In 1933, thanks to the efforts of Paine and Nelson Rockefeller (whose interest stemmed, in part, from his mother Abby Aldrich), Rivera left Detroit for New York where he began a mural for the RCA building lobbyat Rockefeller Center. However, after Rivera included a portrait of Russian revolutionary and socialist Vladimir Ilich Lenin in the mural, work was halted and his unwillingness to remove Lenin’s face led to the commission’s termination. The mural was destroyed in 1934.