“SINCE ART IS ESSENTIAL for human life, it can’t just belong to
the few.” So demanded Diego Rivera, the leading Mexican muralist
whose creative ambitions swept across the 20th century as large
as his class-spanning public art. And Thursday, Google does what
it can to spotlight Rivera’s essential art for an audience of
millions. Today, on the 125th anniversary of Rivera’s birth,
Google’s homepage ”Doodle” celebrates the artist with a mural
rich not only in color, but also in biographical detail. Between
the Doodle’s columns is the historic panorama of a towering
career and transforming country. At left, in typical attire,
Rivera himself stands on the telltale scaffolding, the full-
bodied painter placed in telling proximity to a star-like image
whose hues burn as bold and bright as the artist himself. (Like
the burst of a sunflower surrounded by leaves, the image also
sprouts thoughts of such agrarian Rivera works as “The Blood of
the Revolutionary Martyrs Fertilizing the Earth.” from 1927.)
Beneath the scaffol