Motherhood Angelina and the Child Diego 1916

Diego Rivera made this painting, Motherhood Angelina and the Child Diego, with oil on canvas, but when exactly, nobody seems to know. What is interesting is how Rivera builds up the forms using geometric shapes to suggest a sitting figure, almost as if he's piecing together a puzzle. It's intriguing to see how different textures and colors play against each other here, the brown leg is all dots, which is something you don't see anywhere else in the painting. I find myself wondering about the purple splotches dotted around. And the baby is rendered as blocks of purple, yellow and white. It's as if he is suggesting the feeling of holding a baby, not simply painting what it looks like. Like his fellow countryman, Rufino Tamayo, Rivera is playing with perception and representation here, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. Rivera lets the shapes do the talking, inviting us to see the world in new, unexpected ways.