Diego Rivera

"Only the work of art itself 

can raise the standard of taste."

— Diego Rivera

Mexican Artist / Muralist

1886 - 1957

The Flower Carrier

People talk of taste as if it was real.  It is an illusion of judgement.  Every work of art, every poem, and every story has value.  When people begin to label art as good or bad, they are creating false categories that are based on artificial judgements.  What the majority label as good today may be considered bad tomorrow.  You may like something or not like something which in itself is okay.  Liking or disliking reveals something about you.  There is nothing inherently bad or good within the work of art itself.  The sense of good or bad is in the eyes of the beholder. Any judgement made about a work of art is actually a judgement of the person who made the statement.

While there may only be one person today who likes your art, it does not make the art bad. Two hundred years from now the majority of people may consider it a masterpiece.  Taste is fickle and useless.

Diego Rivera, the great Mexican Muralist,  painted a number of murals in the United States during the 1930's.  Edsel Ford hired him to paint a mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts which is still on view today.  John Rockefeller commissioned him to paint a mural in New York.  Since Rivera was a communist, he included a portrait of Lenin in the mural.  When Rockefeller demanded that he remove the portrait from the mural, Rivera refused.  Rockefeller had the mural destroyed.  In the 1930's, a portrait of Lenin was unacceptable to the American public taste.  A work of art was destroyed because the subject matter was unacceptable.  Three hundred years from now, most people probably will never had heard of Lenin and nobody will be offended.  Remember public taste is fickle and arbitrary.

Chinua Achebe

"Art is man's constant effort to create for himself a different order of reality from that which is given to him."

— Chinua Achebe

Nigerian Novelist/Poet

1930 - 2013

Commentary

Through our painting and writing we have an opportunity to recreate the world as we want it to be.  We have the ability and the opportunity to alter reality.  The world into which we are born can be changed.  We can change our story by retelling it in new ways.  Have you changed your story?  Have you altered the reality in which you live?  Or are you caught up in facts as reality?  The more you can alter and change reality, the better artist you will become.

Biography

Chinua Achebe was born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe in the Igbo village of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria.  Chinualumogu means "May God fight on my behalf."  His parents, Isaiah Okafo Achebe and Janet Anaenechi Iloegbunam Achebe stood at the crossroads of traditional Igbo culture and Christian culture.  His father and mother converted to Protestantism.  

Achebe's mother and sister told him many stories as a child which is a Igbo tradition.  He entered St. Philip's Central school when he was six.  He also attended Sunday school every week.  When he was twelve he moved away from his family and his village to attend the Central school where his older brother taught.  At fourteen, he entered secondary school and completed it in four years instead of the normal five.

In 1948, Achebe entered Nigeria's first university and studied English, history and theology. After his college studies, Achebe found work writing scripts for oral delivery at the Nigerian Broadcasting Service, a radio network, in the city of Lagos.  

Achebe's first and most famous novel, Things Fall Apart, was published in 1958. The novel has sold over 8 million copies and has been translated into 50 languages.

Video

Here is a video of Chinua Achebe discussing Africa after 50 years after writing and publishing Things Fall Apart.