Cat Power:
Indian Warrior, 1931, another fresco from the upcoming MoMA show reuniting murals Diego Rivera made about Mexican history and social injustice for his retrospective at the museum 80 years ago. (See yesterday’s post for more details on his radical project.)
The artist based this image of an Aztec warrior on his deep study of pre-Columbian art. For the conquistador, he drew on Italian Renaissance techniques like the foreshortening in Mantegna’s Lamentation of Christ. The connection is odd, because to Rivera, the Spaniard under the knife is hardly a victim. Still, the artist must have thought he made an exquisite corpse.
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts. Purchased with the Winthrop Hillyer Fund SC 1934:8-1
© 2011 Banco de México Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, México, D.F./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
