Conversations with Diego Rivera: The Monster in His Labyrinth

by Alfredo Cardona Peña, Alvaro Cardona-Hine (Translator)

A year of weekly interviews (1949-1950) with artist Diego Rivera by poet Alfredo Cardona-Peña disclose Rivera’s iconoclastic views of life and the art world of that time. These intimate Sunday dialogues with what is surely the most influential Mexican artist of the twentieth century show us the free-flowing mind of a man who was a legend in his own time; an artist who escaped being lynched on more than one occasion, a painter so controversial that his public murals inspired movements, or, like the work commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, were ordered torn down. Here in his San Angelín studio, we hear Rivera’s feelings about the elitist aspect of paintings in museums, his motivations to create public art for the people, and his memorable, unedited expositions on the art, culture, and politics of Mexico. The book has seven chapters that loosely follow the range of the author’s questions and Rivera’s answers. They begin with childlike, yet vast questions on the nature of art, run through Rivera’s early memories and aesthetics, his views on popular art, his profound understanding of Mexican art and artists, the economics of art, random expositions on history or dreaming, and elegant analysis of art criticisms and critics. The work is all the more remarkable to have been captured between Rivera’s inhumanly long working stints of six hours or even days without stop. In his rich introduction, author Cardona-Peña describes the difficulty of gaining entrance to Rivera’s inner sanctum, how government funtionaries and academics often waited hours to be seen, and his delicious victory. At eight p. m. the night of August 12, a slow, heavy-set, parsimonious Diego came in to where I was, speaking his Guanajuato version of English and kissing women’s hands. I was able to explain my idea to him and he was immediately interested. He invited me into his studio, and while taking off his jacket, said, “Ask me...” And I asked one, two, twenty... I don't know how many questions ‘til the small hours of the night, with him answering from memory, with an incredible accuracy, without pausing, without worrying much about what he might be saying, all of it spilling out in an unconscious and magical manner. A series of Alfredo Cardona-Peña’s weekly interviews with Rivera were published in 1949 and 1950 in the Mexican newspaper, El Nacional, for which Alfredo was a journalist. His book of compiled interviews with introduction and preface, El Monstruo en su Laberinto, was published in Spanish in 1965. Finally, this extraordinary and rare exchange has been translated for the first time into English by Alfredo’s half-brother Alvaro Cardona Hine, also a poet. According to the translator’s wife, Barbara Cardona-Hine, bringing the work into English was a labor of love for Alvaro, the fulfillment of a promise made to his brother in 1971 that he did not get to until the year before his own death in 2016.

168 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 9, 2018

Reviews

[Jeaninne Escallier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The journalist, Alfredo Cardona Pena, gives us new insight into one of the greatest artists of the 20th century with his weekly interviews from the years 1949 and 1950. Newly released in English, after 70 years in Spanish, we have access to Diego Rivera, "the monster in his labyrinth." This little book symbolizes everything I have loved about the man and his art. With an imagination beyond reason, an intellect that challenges the greatest thinkers of our time, and a passion that could cause raging wildfires across the globe, Diego imparts his beliefs about the history, culture, and art of Mexico.

It is no coincidence that the lives of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo have changed my life perspective. They not only lived in a time of political revolution and societal change in mid-20th century Mexico, but their lives and work precipitated many modern political movements. If you haven't experienced Diego's art for the masses in his extraordinary murals across North America, or Frida Kahlo's self-portraits that depict the suffering of women, then you haven't lived a complete life. For me, getting to know Diego in a more intimate light through this book has added to my appreciation of the art he left us for generations to come. Mexican art is a love letter to the world. In essence, it says: Every person deserves respect and value; and, there is beauty in everything.