Arena (1975)

Revolutionary With A Paintbox (1987x18)

Air date: Nov 20, 1987

A profile of Diego Rivera, considered to be the most famous painter in the history of Latin America - and also the most notorious. He was a Rabelaisian figure of far-flung proportions who claimed to have been a confidant of Lenin, the true father of Rommel, and to have tasted human flesh on a number of occasions. He was a maverick, a compendium of contradictions and irrationalities. A self-proclaimed revolutionary who sought in mural paintings a new public art form to broadcast social change to the people of Mexico, he was also the man who accepted commissions from the yankee-dollar capitalists, Rockefeller and Ford.