Diego Rivera was born in Guanajuato on December 8, 1886. Rivera was descended from Spanish nobility on his father’s side. From the age of ten, Rivera studied art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City. He was sponsored to continue study in Europe by Teodoro A. Dehesa Méndez, the governor of the State of Veracruz.

After arrival in Europe in 1907, Rivera initially went to study with Eduardo Chicharro in Madrid, Spain, and from there went to Paris, France, to live and work with the great gathering of artists in Montparnass.

In those years, Paris was witnessing the beginning of cubism in paintings by such eminent painters as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. From 1913 to 1917, Rivera enthusiastically embraced this new school of art.

During 1930s and 1940s, Diego Rivera painted several murals in the United States. Some of his works also created controversy. His mural Man at the Crossroads for the Rockefeller Center in New York City, was removed after a furor erupted in the press over a portrait of Vladimir Lenin it contained. In December 1933, Rivera returned to Mexico, and he repainted Man at the Crossroads in 1934 in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. This surviving version was called Man, Controller of the Universe.

Today Rivera’s murals are celebrated all over the world.  Even Google celebrates the greatest of Rivera by decorating their website. His greatest legacy was his impact on how people view public art. In depicting scenes of American life on public buildings, Rivera provided the first inspiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s WPA program.

Sources:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Diego-Riveras-125th-birth-anniversary-celebrated-by-Google/articleshow/11029571.cms

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/diego-rivera/about-the-artist/64/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Rivera