Art & Design Unusual Diego Rivera Work Restored in Mexico City
The Mexican muralist Diego Rivera painted in New York City, San
Francisco, Detroit, Europe and the Soviet Union. But some of
Rivera's most famous murals and most unusual projects are found
in Mexico City. In Mexico City, Rivera did far more than just
paint. He collected pre-Hispanic pottery and indigenous folk
art. And he experimented with sculpture and architecture. And
between 1950 and 1952, Rivera built a giant, tiled fountain to
the Aztec rain god Tlaloc as part of an overhaul of Mexico
City's municipal water system. "It's a very special fountain.
It's one of the most important sculptures that Diego Rivera did
in his life," says Lilia Haua of Probosque Chapultepec, an
organization which helped raise money to restore this work by
Rivera. But the fountain and murals had fallen into disrepair
and until a year ago, were closed to the public for more than a
decade. "The fountain was completely destroyed so we tried to
make it as nice as we can ...