- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; New edition edition (Oct 2 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0810990822
- ISBN-13: 978-0810990821
- Product Dimensions: 24.7 x 24.7 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 839 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#509,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Books > Arts & Photography > Artists, A-Z > ( P-R ) > Rivera, Diego
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In another life, before becoming one of the best known and most popular journalists in New York and the author of the bestselling memoir A Drinking Life, Pete Hamill studied art on the GI Bill in Mexico City. Upon seeing the monumental work of José Clemente Orozco, however, he abruptly lost his nerve: "It seemed an act of self-delusion to try to be a painter."
After 44 years, Hamill has found a way to integrate his early affair with art, his lifelong love of Mexico, and his narrative gifts in this riveting and lushly illustrated book on Diego Rivera, Mexico's best-known, widely loved muralist. Hamill's text, he says, was completed before the publication of Patrick Marnham's Dreaming with His Eyes Open: A Life of Diego Rivera. This one is less scholarly but respectably researched, and Hamill's fervent opinions on which of Rivera's works are worthy and which are the sad effluvia of a Communist Party hack are remarkably persuasive. Hamill's esthetic judgment has led him to avoid reproducing any second-rate clunkers. He has chosen the great murals, paintings, and drawings that suit the godlike stature of this outsize artist who lied, cheated, womanized, and evaded responsibility his entire life, but who worked like a demon in the service of his art.
Rivera's shabby genteel childhood; his flight to France during the 10-year Mexican Revolution, during which nearly a tenth of his countrymen died; his callous abandonment of his first wife; his ugly political gambits and high-flown society contacts; his ultimately sad relationships with both men and women--Hamill weaves it all into a fantastic read. The book is not as balanced as Dreaming with His Eyes Open, but is nonetheless a passionate first look at an artist whose complicated life will probably still be examined decades from now. --Peggy Moorman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Hamill, former editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News and the New York Post, has lived, worked, and studied art in Mexico. This lively, if not definitive, biography of the pioneering Mexican muralist recounts the king-sized Rivera's real-life escapades without romantic embellishment and with a critical eye. In particular, Hamill is suspect of the seemingly universal admiration for Rivera's "narcissist" wife, artist Frida Kahlo. Coming on the heels of renewed scholarly interest in Rivera and the Mexican muralist movement, Hamill's work must inevitably compete with other studies. It relies more on secondary sources than Patrick Marnham's dependable, more thoroughly researched Dreaming with His Eyes Open (LJ 10/1/98), which it could serve to complement. With 100 very fine illustrations, 50 of which are in color; suitable for large library systems. [BOMC selection.]AMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., M.
-AMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
-AMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
The life and the art. First rate!,
By
This review is from: Diego Rivera (Paperback)
Prior to reading Hamill's bio of Rivera I had read some of another, published the same year. I'm not sure why I was so cool to the book or why it left me irritated. But that would have been the end of my investigation of Rivera's life if I hadn't come across Hamill's book by accident.I read a couple of pages and was hooked. Hamill is known to me as a fine journalist, editor and novelist but an art biographer? Yes! Yes! This book is a pleasure to read. The prose is clear, clean and engaging, yet it packs a lot of information. And what's the point of writing about a major painter and not printing any of his work? This book is filled with glorious, excellent color reproductions covering Rivera's entire life work. Hamill is not afraid to offer judgments but I thought they were fair and relevant. This is a solid piece of work. As a young man Hamill wanted to be a painter and went to Mexico City to study. He later lived in the city as a journalist. So there are many years of the love of Mexico and art behind this book. If you want to know more about the Mexican revolution, the art scene in Paris around the years of WWI (Rivera accused Picasso of stealing ideas from him) how Mexico nurtured and esteemed its artists, and much more, read this book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coffee Table Material,
By Michelaneous "www.michelecozzens.com" (Sandy Point Resort, Northwoods Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Diego Rivera (Hardcover)
If you admire Rivera, buy this book. It sits on our coffee table and is very alluring. It makes a great gift for any fan of this extraordinary artist.Submitted by the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life."
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blends both the highs and lows in his struggle,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Diego Rivera (Paperback)
Unforgettable reading, Diego Rivera is a vivid, emotionally written biography of the famous Mexican artist, mural painter, and Communist activist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Biographer Pete Hamill narration of Rivera's remarkable life is enhanced with Rivera's great works of art both in full color replications and through black-and-white photographs. With an informed and informative text more heavily weighted toward relating Rivera's life story than simply being a showcase of Rivera's great murals, Diego Rivera blends both the highs and lows in his struggle through life for meaning against a background of turbulent politics, as well as the overwhelming messages of his art.
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