Creation 1923

Diego Rivera made this fresco called Creation at the San Ildefonso College in Mexico City, and what strikes me is the real mix of different registers. The palette is earthy and warm, but it’s punctuated by intense yellows and blues. This is a mural, so the physicality of it is unavoidable. It’s a huge, grounded thing. The paint is laid on pretty flat, which gives it a kind of ancient, timeless quality. Look at the figure in the center, with arms outstretched; this figure is part man, part tree, part mountain. It's like Rivera’s trying to blend everything into one big creation myth. You see a symbol like a shield in the middle, but it's surrounded by chaotic growth. To me this encapsulates what he’s trying to do: contain the uncontainable. Rivera has a lot in common with someone like Thomas Hart Benton, another muralist who was trying to capture the spirit of a place. They both understood that art is always in conversation with the past and the present, and that meanings are never fixed.