In the year 1947, Diego Rivera completed his mural “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Central Park”. It was originally commissioned for a hotel, but after intense earthquakes the mural was moved to its own museum in Mexico. At this point in time, Rivera was in his fifties; the latest stage of his artistic career. The fresco stands at fifty-one feet wide and fifteen feet tall.
The viewer is at first overwhelmed with the four-hundred plus figures in the fresco. From the title, we can infer the narrative takes place in Mexico City’s largest park: Alameda Central Park. Dreams also reflect the Surrealist influence; Rivera combines characters from several time periods. At closer inspection, the mural can be divided by three panels differentiated by these characters. The imagery on the left of the colorful balloons depicts the conquest of Mexico. Hernan Cortez and other historical figures are portrayed to symbolize the bloody upbringing of Mexico and religious influence. In the middle, there are Rivera’s contemporaries such as Frida Kahlo and Jose Guadalupe Posada. The right side shows the struggle of workers represented by the family being pushed out by the officer.
Rivera uses a lot of bright yellows, reds, and blues which results in a happy and uplifting feeling, however the topics he depicts are harsh realities. The brutality of Mexico’s upbringing is depicted my clustered scuffles and overlapping figures.
