MASP

Diego Rivera

The Porter (Las Ilusiones), 1944

  • Author:
    Diego Rivera
  • Bio:
    Guanajauto, México, 1886-Cidade do México, México ,1957
  • Title:
    The Porter (Las Ilusiones)
  • Date:
    1944
  • Medium:
    Óleo sobre papelão
  • Dimensions:
    76 x 59 x 2,5 cm
  • Credit line:
    Doação Valentim Bouças, 1947
  • Object type:
    Pintura
  • Inventory number:
    MASP.00213
  • Photography credits:
    João Musa

TEXTS



In his years of study in Paris (1907-21), Rivera got to know the cubism of Picasso (1881-1973) and the paintings of Cézanne (1839-1906) and Modigliani (1884-1920). He returned to Mexico in 1921 and began to research and collect popular and pre-Columbian objects. On these bases, he conceived an epic painting, of large surfaces, for the appreciation and education of the masses. From 1922 onward, with the support of the Ministry of Education, he produced mural paintings at numerous public buildings of Mexico City, Cuernavaca and Chapingo. In 1929, Rivera married Mexican painter Frida Khalo (1907-1954), with whom he became familiar with the surrealist movement and the ideological positions of Leon Trótski (1879-1940), the Russian revolutionary who was assassinated in Rivera’s house, in 1940. The Porter (Las Ilusiones) (1944) reflects the revolutionary ideals of that time, which sought to valorize and politicize the worker through the representation of the popular traditions in art. In this painting, Rivera sought to use colors with the same sort of sheen and roughness as the wall paint in the houses of Mexican common folk. The straight lines of the wall and door contrast with the huge, rounded squashes, creating an unusual perspective, in which the man port-rayed looks out at the spectator, from among the squashes, just under the sign that reads, “LAS ILUSIONES” [The Illusions].

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2017




By Luciano Migliaccio
The theme of the picture The Porter (Las Ilusiones) seems to be derived from the moralizing description of life and the figures in the field, characteristic of the “native” anecdotal painting so prevalent in academic art at the end of the last century. Space is defined by proportional squares and rectangles, which approximate it to the space in Giotto’s painting and the so-called Italian “primitives”. The flattened bottom stands in contrast to the rounded, simplified fullness of the burro’s flank and the phallic marrows, deliberately creating a sarcastic effect. The artist’s palette is enriched by more brilliant tones, which create the carefully sought after “local color” effects. As is the case with the other Rivera work in the museum, this picture, amongst the best known by the Mexican painter, shows use of popular iconographies, as well as glimpses of the influence of surrealism. The inheritance from Rivera can be recognized in the sixties pop culture appropriation of mass media iconographies and in English painting over the last decades, most notably by artists such as the North American, Kitaj, and Ken Currie and Peter De Francia, exponents of the Glasgow neo-avant-garde.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

Source: Luiz Marques (org.), Catalogue of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo: MASP, 1998. (new edition, 2008).



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