To convey social and political messages . . .

Today is the birthday of Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez (December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), better known as Diego Rivera, painter.

Diego Rivera's paintings included large wall murals that very often contained social and political messages in them.

In 1932, Diego Rivera had been contracted to paint a mural in the RCA building (Rockfeller Center) in New York City, NY. He was given the theme: Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future and he entitled the work simply Man at the Crossroads. Before he was able to complete the mural, Nelson Rockfeller, concerned with the revolutionary connotations in the mural demanded that Diego Rivera remove Lenin from the painting. Diego Rivera refused to censor his work, and the entire mural was destroyed.

Man, Controller of the Universe
Diego Rivera
Fresco (1934)
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Mexico City, Mexico

Diego Rivera would later create a smaller version of Man at the Crossroads in Mexico City. He entitled the new version of the mural Man, Controller of the Universe or Man in the Time Machine.

"The artist must try to raise the level of taste of the masses, not debase himself to the level of unformed and impoverished taste." - Diego Rivera


"Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste." - Diego Rivera

To travel to heaven . . .

Today is the birthday of William Blake (November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827), poet, painter, and printmaker.

Ancient of Days (God as an Architect)
William Blake
1794
relief etching with watercolor
23 x 17 cm
(9 x 7 inches)
British Museum
London, England

"What has reasoning to do with painting?" - William Blake

"Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death." - William Blake

"The man who never in his mind and thoughts travel'd to heaven is no artist." - William Blake

Blake image source (1)

To seize the light . . .

Today is the birthday of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (November 18, 1787 – July 10, 1851), artist and chemist. He is best known for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography.

"On January 7, 1839, members of the French Académie des Sciences were shown products of an invention that would forever change the nature of visual representation: photography. The astonishingly precise pictures they saw were the work of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), a Romantic painter and printmaker most famous until then as the proprietor of the Diorama, a popular Parisian spectacle featuring theatrical painting and lighting effects. Each daguerreotype (as Daguerre dubbed his invention) was a one-of-a-kind image on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper. . . . From the moment of its birth, photography had a dual character—as a medium of artistic expression and as a powerful scientific tool—and Daguerre promoted his invention on both fronts." quote source (1)

"I have seized the light. I have arrested its flight." - Louis Daguerre

Daguerre image source (1)

For contemplation . . .

Today is the birthday of François-Auguste-René Rodin (November 12, 1840 – November 17, 1917), better known simply as Auguste Rodin, sculptor.

The Thinker, a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin is one of his most memorable works. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. It is often used to represent philosophy. There are over twenty casts of the sculpture in museums around the world.

The Thinker
Auguste Rodin
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
San Francisco, California

"The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him." - Auguste Rodin

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation." - Auguste Rodin



"To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth." - Auguste Rodin

"Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated." - Auguste Rodin

The Thinker image source (1)

To get a grip on reality . . .

Today is the birthday of Alberto Giacometti (October 10, 1901 – January 11, 1966), sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. He is best known for his sculptures of thin, elongated human figures.


"That's the terrible thing: the more one works on a picture, the more impossible it becomes to finish it." - Alberto Giacometti

"It is impossible to do a thing the way I see it because the closer I get the more differently I see." - Alberto Giacometti

"I paint and sculpt to get a grip on reality . . . to protect myself." - Alberto Giacometti

To record facts around me . . .

Today is the birthday of Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 - December 26, 1909), painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in depictions of the Old American West.

The Scout: Friends or Foes

Frederic Remington

Oil on canvas (c. 1900-05)

68.6 x 101.6 cm

(27 x 40 in.)

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Williamstown, Massachusetts

"Art is a she-devil of a mistress, and if at times in earlier days she would not even stoop to my way of thinking, I have persevered and will so continue." - Frederic Remington


"I knew the wild riders and the vacant land were about to vanish forever... and the more I considered the subject, the bigger the forever loomed. Without knowing how to do it, I began to record some facts around me, and the more I looked the more the panorama unfolded." - Frederic Remington

Remington painting image source (1)

To have an adventure . . .

Today is the birthday of Mark Rothko (September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970) born Marcus Rothkowitz, painter and printmaker.


"To us art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored only by those willing to take the risks." - Mark Rothko