LACMA
Diego Rivera "Flower Day"
Diego Rivera "Flower Day"
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Limited Edition: 6
Exhibition: Great Art
Material: Printed 2-ply vinyl
Dimensions: 35" x 96" (88cm x 243cm)
Hanging Hardware Included
Summary
A masterpiece of modern painting, Diego Rivera's "Flower Day" exemplifies the style and sensibilities of the artist's work. Featured on 6 banners from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the work achieves monumental status in this dramatic, large-scale, close-up version. The sculptural face of the flower carrier and the vibrant calla lily he bears bring drama to your wall.
Description
Diego Rivera championed the causes of Mexico's common people, peasants, and native underclass. Many of his paintings celebrate these groups and elevate them in art to a higher status than they held in the real world. This was Rivera's vision, and he used it to explore his interest in the culture, art, and daily life of rural Mexicans.
One of his masterpieces which celebrates Mexico's revolutionary peasants and Indian underclass is Flower Day from 1925. The work features a flower carrier with a basket of calla lilies on his back bending before two girls. Some believe that the scene is intended to evoke the ancient Mexican tradition of dedicating flowers to the gods. By combining flat, geometric shapes with curved forms and blocks of color, the work has a Cubist feel. But it is modern in a different way as well, in its clarity of expression and the simplicity with which Rivera crafts complexity of emotion and meaning.
A dramatically cropped detail of Flower Day is seen on these banners, highlighting the grand, sculptural face of the flower carrier beneath a weighty calla lily. Below the image is an orange band with white text that simply reads 'Great Art'. The other side of the banner completes the image, showing a continuation of the front image. This is framed in an orange band with the museum's website in white letters 'www.lacma.org'. The banner was designed to span a street lamp post, so hanging two banners side-by-side would create a large, complete image.
Provenance
These banners were displayed around Los Angeles to promote 'Great Art' in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Other banners in the series feature works by John Singer Sargent, Amedeo Modigliani, Frans Hals, and Hashiguchi Goyo.
About the Artist
