ART1000 P222
Week: 6
Chapter: 6
Discussion: 1
January 17, 2013
“El Albanil”
By Diego Rivera
1904
The correct
interpretation is “the bricklayer”. This I know because my family comes for a
long line of Mexican bricklayers. I heard this word, and their terminology in
Spanish and English all my life. My grandfather was born in 1880 in Sinaloa,
Mexico. My father was born just this side of the border in Nogales, Az. My
grandfather was a bricklayer, as was my father and my uncles. My father Angel
Fraijo and my uncle Francisco Fraijo built a good portion of the original downtown
Tucson, Arizona are. As well as one of the first modern movie theaters called
Buena Vista. This building no longer stands but it was there. I fell in love
with this painting because this is what my tata (grandfather) must have dressed
like for work as well. As he was 24 years old at the time that Diego Rivera
painted this painting. In fact my
grandfather was a little older than Diego Rivera.
Diego Rivera was an academic fine artist. He was
talented and gifted, however, he did go for formal training at the Academy of
San Carlos in Mexico City when he was 10 years old. He went to study in
Barcelona, Spain when he was about 18 years old. By the time he was 16 years of
age he had been exhibited with 26 works of art and became an established
painter. Now his work would be taken seriously as a professional painter and
not just a young boy with a dream to paint.
His favorite subject,
the working class of Mexico. He painted the laborers, pickers, field workers.
He seemed to be infatuated with the working class citizen and their life
styles. He certainly painted their history, giving them the credit as hard
working people. He also felt that everyone should benefit from art the poor as
well as the rich. The painting “El Albanil” was one of his first
paintings in oil on canvas. Perhaps one of the first four paintings of Rivera’s
early time. It came up missing for almost 80 many years until the grandson of
the couple that had purchased it in 1930 found it behind an office door. He
took it to the Antique Roadshow where it was authenticated and appraised by
Colleene Fesko.
Ms. Fesko also
commented that the way he signed his signature to the painting was an
indication that this was one of the paintings of his youth, as his signature
had matured and changed with his more recent paintings. He signed “El Abanil” as a young Diego Rivera. Up
to 1995-96 the only research on the painting that was found in Mexico City was
that it was unknown. “El Albanil”,
was missing from 1930, when it was purchased until it resurfaced at an Antique
Roadshow at Corpus Christi in 1995-96. That is where Ms. Fesko authenticated it
and appraised it at $800,000 - $1,000,000.
This painting is
proportionate to scale. The “Bricklayer” appears very life-like. His face is rugged
and sun worn like someone who has spent the better of their lifetime working
outdoors. He is wearing the traditional white cotton work pants, sombrero and
poncho. These ponchos were thick like a wool blanket and helped to retain heat
in the cold weather. The sombrero kept the sun out of the bricklayer’s eyes and
directly off his face. He worn traditional huarache sandals that were probably
his everyday shoes as well. Life was simply for the Mexican worker. You work and
there is food and shelter, you don’t and there is no food or shelter. These
people put their lives into their work, from the buildings they built to the
dresses they embroidered, and the jewelry they made. Everything is an art to
them even the dishes they cooked. It has to look beautiful, smell beautiful and
taste like love. Diego Rivera recorded Mexican culture, and history in his
paintings. He even painted “La Revolacion” that took place at the beginning of
the 20th century.
This bricklayer was
proud to be a worker, look at how his stance is tall and strong. He isn’t
slouching or looking down with humility. He is proud and looking straight at
his artist. Making sure that he captures the strength, courage, pride and
dignity that he puts into the buildings he builds. For that is his signature to
his art, his pride and dignity. These people take their name and the essence of
that name and what it means to them very seriously. There is no shame in being
poor, but there is great shame in being lazy. Diego Rivera didn’t use the
bright primary colors he did most of all his later paintings. This one was
special, it almost makes me wonder if he didn’t have personal connection to the
man he painted. Maybe he knew him? If he didn’t he painted him like he did. In
fact this man looks like my father. It is not my father but you would have
never guessed it wasn’t if you had seen a picture of my father in his youth.
He uses secondary
colors to paint this man, with the exception of “white”. We have shades of blue, red, rose and tans for skin tone, there is black
but only for the purpose of shading
or creating depth, a 3-D look. Even though this is a 2-D
painting it does not have that “flat” look he was famous for in older paintings.
By painting the background walls in reverse
colors he created space behind the bricklayer. This painting was very
different from his traditional 2-D flat paintings that he became so famous for
later in his career. Frieda Kahlo, his wife also a famous Mexican painter from
the 20th Century used that “flat” 2-D effect in most her paintings
as well. The painting, “El Albanil”
has form, shape and there is depth
showing the room that descends behind him and around him. Perhaps he is
standing in a building that he is working on.
The texture of the painting
is a little rough, you can see the brushstrokes as they applied the
details of the skin, clothes, and the walls around him. His brush strokes in
the painting really show his training and skill for the arts he acquired at the
Academy of Mexico City.
I cannot help but
notice that there is a perfect line
in this painting that goes straight up and down. If you line up the bricklayers left foot and leg and go straight up it is
in line with his facial features. This gave him perfect posture. He is standing straight up and tall and
proud. I am sure that he used this line
to scale and proportion the size of the head to the body and balance everything out. That is what
makes this painting life-like. It is a perfect example of 20th
century naturalism and realism. This worker is as authentic as
it gets. You are looking back 110 years at what the Mexican bricklayer looked
like on a daily bases.
He really emphasized
this man as not just a worker, not just a laborer, but a bricklayer. He
included his tools. The shovel in his hand that he used to dig footings, the pail
that he carried bricks in, or even mixed cement to lay the bricks. The only
masonry tool that I do not see here is what they called “la Pala”, that means
the shovel or the spade. This is a small hand tool, triangular in shape and
flat. It is used to scoop up the cement and place it around each brick, as they
are laid up to form a wall.
He did put allot of
thought into this man and his trade, even the tools he would use on a daily
basis. There is no doubt what his trade is.
The bricklayer is
highlighted in a bright hue of light blues and white creating a glow
around just him. This makes you look at him, study him because “El Albanil” is the subject. This
painting drew my attention because this man was very real and very much an icon
of Mexico. There is an old song sung by
the famous Mariachi singer, Vicente Fernandez, called “El Albanil”. These men come from generation after generation of
bricklayers. I know that my family did. I have seen old photos of my great
uncles and my grandfather in their youth and they look just like this man.
Right down to the mustache and the black hair, the rugged looking facial
features, this men built Mexico, one generation picking up where the other left
off all the way back to the pyramids. I have seen photos of my Uncles in the
Pancho Villa days, having a pint of beer at the cantina with their bullets
strapped crisscross on the chest, their pistols on each side of their hips and
that sombrero that made Mexico famous, with a sign in the background that read
“Mine for Sale”. My father’s sister who now in her eighty’s has this photo in
her family collections.
Diego Rivera was born
in a small village called Guanajuato, Mexico in 1886 and died in Mexico City,
Mexico in 1957 of a heart attack. Today,
Guanajuato is still a small village. My brother and his wife married there
about 14 years ago. The bride and groom were carried away by cart and donkey. His
father built him a studio at the age of 2 in this small village. The family
later moved to Mexico City in 1892 and when he turned 10 years of age he
started attending the Academy of Mexico City to become an artist. He painted “El Albanil” in 1904 when he was about
18 years old. I was sold in 1930 and rediscovered in 1995-96 at the Antique
Roadshow. This painting was literally missing for his entire career. I was
archived as “whereabouts unknown”. I always think of Rivera’s art as those 2-D
flat looking villages, with workers gathering flowers and working the fields.
It was amazing to see that his earlier work was realistic naturalism. Even though he did not go to study the arts
in Europe until after he painted “El
Albanil” he showed a lot of skill in his brush strokes that only a fine artist would have. If I didn’t
know better I would say that his brush strokes remind me a little of the
texture that Claude Monet had in his paintings. But as we know Diego was
inspired by many great painters like Picasso, Cezanne, Chicharro, Braque, and
Derain. He dedicated himself to “cubist”
school of art for 5 years, yet these were not the paintings he was famous for. Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose
Clemente Orozco were known as “Los tres Grande’s” meaning the three greats.
These three gentlemen were known for setting off the Mexican Renaissance.
They revolutionized Mexican Art at the
beginning of the 20th Century. In all, Diego Rivera was a brilliant
genius in his style and talent to record the Mexican workers and poor people on
oil and canvas. He painted their world as it was and as it appeared, depicting
their art, music, dance, food and religion into the scenery. You can see there is Aztec influence in his
art as well. He did study Aztec painting and portraiture. He also had allot of political context in his
art. He had so much that when he was commissioned to paint a mural on the wall at
the Rockefeller Center in New York, it was torn down before he could finish it
due to its communistic detail. He truly captured his people in his era and
expressed what being Mexican at the turn of the century was like. I see my own
grandparents, Luis and Gregoria Fraijo in these paintings. My grandfather was
very much “El Albanil” and my
grandmother very much “Delfina Flores”.
I believe that the people he painted
were people he knew. He brought them to life with such realism because they were real. He was a fine artist of 20th Century naturalism and realism setting
off the Mexican Renaissance. Thank
you Mr. Diego Rivera for putting into paintings our culture, our traditions,
hardship, our wars, our lives, ourselves. Now we will live forever.
El Albanil by Diego Rivera 1904
Delfina Flores with her niece Modesta by Diego Rivera
Delfina Flores by Diego Rivera
The Eiffel Tower by Diego River 1917
cubist study in Spain.
Still Life by Diego Rivera 1916
cubist study in Spain
Two Women by Diego Rivera 1914
cubist study in Spain
