DIEGO RIVERA at SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA

Pan American Unity, mural by Diego Rivera at SFMOMA, San Francisco

Stretching 74 feet from end to end, Diego Rivera’s giant mural known as Pan American Unity fills the Roberts Gallery on the first floor of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Painted on ten large panels for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1940, it depicts a dizzying array of scenes detailing a past, present, and future that the artist believed were shared across North America.

Detail from center panel.

Rivera had been invited as the featured attraction in Art in Action, a massive exhibition that included artists creating works in front of a live audience.

When the 1940 exposition was over, the panels were moved to the campus of City College of San Francisco, where they remained until the summer of 2021 when the mural was moved temporarily to SFMOMA.

Center panels of Pan American Unity. (Original title, The Marriage of the Artistic Expression of the North and of the South on this Continent.)

I saw the Pan American Unity mural in December, 2022, on my visit to the museum to see the amazing retrospective of Diego Rivera’s work, Diego Rivera’s America, which focused on his work from the 1920s to mid-1940s. (The retrospective closed January 3, 2023, but the Pan American Unity mural will be on view for another year, until January 2024.) 

The Flower Carrier (1935)

I grew up with a print of Diego Rivera’s painting The Flower Carrier hanging over the piano in our house so when I saw it at the museum it was like meeting an old friend. I knew that Diego Rivera was a master painter, but I never appreciated the breadth of his work until I saw this exhibit. 

Self Portrait (1941) by Diego Rivera. This image appeared on a Mexican banknote.

Organized chronologically and thematically, the exhibit traced his development to become one of the greatest muralists of all time. He was also a portrait painter, costume designer, book illustrator, and social radical.

Studies for Creation, mural in Mexico City

From the beginning Diego Rivera thought big. On exhibit in one of the first rooms were his studies hands and heads. But unlike the small drawings I made in my sketch book in art school (drawing 50 hands was the first week’s homework assignment) Diego’s were all larger than life, as if for a giant.

The Market (1923-24). Mural painted at the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico City.

I wondered, in advance of going to the museum, how they were going to display Diego Rivera’s murals—since, unlike the Pan American Unity mural which was intended to be portable, most of the others are permanently attached to the walls on which they had been painted. The solution was to project photos of these other murals on the wall of a darkened room. As I stood there admiring the artwork towering before me, a figure of a real person suddenly crossed the screen, opened a door, and disappeared. Then another appeared and walked down the stairs. I realized then that the photos were actually videos, putting us the viewers into the scene and providing a sense of scale.

The Flowered Canoe (1931). A depiction of the canal system, originally built by the Aztecs, and still in use in the south of Mexico City.

The ten thematic galleries of the exhibit are dedicated to places that captured Diego Rivera’s imagination, and to his favorite subjects, such as street markets, popular celebrations, and images of labor and industry.

The Offering. In gallery featuring paintings of mothers and children.

One room contained pictures of mothers and children. Another gallery focused on his portraits, including some of people who were models for his murals.

Still Life and Blossoming Almond Trees (1931). Painted for the home of Sigmund and Rosalie Stern in rural San Mateo County. Ansel Adams photographed Rivera painting this mural.

Allegory of California (1930-32). Mural at the stairway of the Pacific Stock Exchange (now City Club), San Francisco. Model for woman is tennis star Helen Wills Moody.

Diego Rivera and Frida (1931) by Frida Kahlo (In the permanent collection of SFMOMA.)

In addition, there was a room of artwork by people influenced by Diego Rivera, including the famous marriage portrait by his wife, Frida Kahlo.The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo married Diego Rivera in 1929 and came with him to San Francisco in 1930.

The photos of the artwork you see in this post are just a fraction of the photos I took at the exhibit. I like to take photos when I go to a museum to help me remember and as a visual notes. Then, when I get home, I can enjoy the art all over again. I will continue to look at my photos and enjoy the art in Diego Rivera's America for a long time.

Banana, costume design for ballet HP (Horse Power), 1927, by Diego Rivera