Zapatista Landscape. The Guerrilla 1915

This is Diego Rivera’s ‘Zapatista Landscape,’ painted, I imagine, with oils on canvas, a process of layering and revealing. It’s a landscape alright, but also a mindscape! I can picture Rivera, wrestling with representation, taking apart the scene and reassembling it in a new way, almost like collage. The rifle stands tall, right in the middle, so you can’t miss that this is about conflict. The mountains are soft, like a memory, in contrast with the colorful blanket, a jumble of shapes and patterns—red, white, green, black—so vibrant against the muted background, practically shouting, "I'm here!" You can almost feel Rivera's hand moving, guided by feeling as much as thought, trying to capture the essence of the Zapatista spirit. It’s like he's saying, "Here's a landscape, but it's also a feeling, a struggle, a history." And that's what makes it so powerful, don't you think?