Diego Rivera Quotes

• To be an artist, one must . . . never shirk from the truth as he understands it, never withdraw from life

  Diego Rivera

  Art, Artist, Growth

  194 Copy quote

• The rôle of the artist is that of a soldier of the revolution.

  Diego Rivera

  Artist, Soldier, Revolution

  145 Copy quote
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  As an artist I have always tried to be faithful to my vision of life, and I have frequently been in conflict with those who wanted me to paint not what I saw but what they wished me to see.

  Diego Rivera

  Artist, Faithful, Vision

  Diego Rivera (1960). “My Art, My Life: An Autobiography”, p.98, Courier Corporation

  175 Copy quote

• All art is propaganda. ... The only difference is the kind of propaganda. Since art is essential for human life, it can't just belong to the few. Art is the universal language, and it belongs to all mankind. All painters have been propagandists or else they have not been painters. ... Every artist who has been worth anything in art has been such a propagandist. ... Every strong artist has been a propagandist. I want to be a propagandist and I want to be nothing else. ... I want to use my art as a weapon.

  Diego Rivera

  Strong, Art, Differences

  181 Copy quote

• Art is like ham-it nourishes people.

  Diego Rivera

  Art, People, Ham

  105 Copy quote

• An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can't feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn't capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won't put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn't a great artist.

  Diego Rivera

  Fighting, Sacrifice, Artist

  134 Copy quote
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  Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.

  Diego Rivera

  Pride, Thinking, Done

  Diego Rivera, with Gladys March (2012). “My Art, My Life: An Autobiography”, p.18, Courier Corporation

  109 Copy quote

• I know now that he who hopes to be universal in his art must plant in his own soil. Great art is like a tree, which grows in a particular place and has a trunk, leaves, blossoms, boughs, fruit, and roots of its own. The more native art is, the more it belongs to the entire world, because taste is rooted in nature. When art is true, it is one with nature. This is the secret of primitive art and also of the art of the mastersMichelangelo, Czanne, Seurat, and Renoir. The secret of my best work is that it is Mexican.

  Diego Rivera

  Art, Roots, Mexican

  Diego Rivera, with Gladys March (2012). “My Art, My Life: An Autobiography”, p.31, Courier Corporation

  120 Copy quote

• Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste.

  Diego Rivera

  Art, Taste, Standards

  76 Copy quote

• I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso.

  Diego Rivera

  Art, Believe, I Believe

  115 Copy quote

• The artist must try to raise the level of taste of the masses, not debase himself to the level of unformed and impoverished taste.

  Diego Rivera

  Artist, Trying, Levels

  64 Copy quote
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  If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait.

  Diego Rivera

  Hurt, Happy Friday, Victim

  Diego Rivera (1960). “My Art, My Life: An Autobiography”, p.180, Courier Corporation

  73 Copy quote

• July 13, 1954 was the most tragic day of my life. I had lost my beloved Frida forever. To late now I realized that the most wonderful part of my life had been my love for Frida.

  Diego Rivera

  Lost Love, Happy Friday, Artist

  Deborah Kent, Diego Rivera (2005). “Diego Rivera: Painting Mexico”, Childs World Incorporated

  84 Copy quote
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  My cubist paintings are my most Mexican.

  Diego Rivera

  Mexican, Painting

  Gerry Souter, Diego Rivera (2007). “Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera”, Parkstone Press International

  49 Copy quote
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  Never before had a woman put such agonizing poetry on canvas as Frida did

  Diego Rivera

  Art, Agonizing, Canvas

  Diego Rivera, Gladys March (1960). “My art, my life: an autobiography”

  52 Copy quote

• Every good composition is above all a work of abstraction. All good painters know this. But the painter cannot dispense with subjects altogether without his work suffering impoverishment.

  Diego Rivera

  Suffering, Very Good, Painter

  42 Copy quote

• I did not know it then, but Frida had already become the most important fact in my life. And would continue to be, up to the moment she died, 27 years later.

  Diego Rivera

  Friday, Artist, Years

  46 Copy quote

• Through her paintings, she breaks all the taboos of the woman's body and of female sexuality.

  Diego Rivera

  Artist, Female, Body

  65 Copy quote

• I am an atheist and I consider religions to be a form of collective neurosis. I am not an enemy of the Catholics, as I am not an enemy of the tuberculars, the myopic or the paralytics; you cannot be an enemy of the sick, only their good friend in order to help them cure themselves.

  Diego Rivera

  Atheist, Good Friend, Order

  37 Copy quote

• I do not believe in God, yet I believe in Picasso.

  Diego Rivera

  Believe, I Believe, Believe In God

  34 Copy quote

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