THE CHAPEL AT CHAPINGO: DIEGO RIVERA'S ART AS RELIGION AND REVOLUTION

Christopher Hanawalt (Adriano Duque) Department of Modern Languages, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022.

The research in this paper, titled “The Chapel at Chapingo: Diego Rivera's Art as Religion and Revolution," focuses around the concept of reinventing revolution as both a form of religion and worship. The frescoes in the chapel of Chapingo combine imagery and motifs from indigenous culture, Marxist beliefs, and religious artistic structure, creating a temple for Diego Rivera's ideas of personal and social revolution. While basing his messages in Marxism, Diego went beyond this foundation, creating his own form of revolution – a revolution through art. The murals in the chapel of Chapingo show us a criticism of the bourgeoisie lifestyle, Christianity, and capitalism. Instead of saints, fighters of the Mexican Revolution as well as workers become the depicted martyrs and influences that leach through the soil and vegetation of Mexico. The space within the chapel reserved for the figure of Jesus is replaced with that of a large, pregnant, nude woman, evoking imagery of the traditional goddess of Tlazoteotl as well as reminding us of childbirth and fertility. The viewer is being told that the chapel has become a place of fertilization and germination for revolutionary ideals and movement. Worshippers to this new form of religion are meant to leave the chapel, overwhelmed with the history and ideas of social change, Marxism, and Mexico's history, and are prepared to enforce new levels and forms of change in modern Mexico. This paper synthesizes the early artistic beliefs of Diego Rivera, during a time before he knew Frida Kahlo – a person he is often inextricably linked with. By focusing on these murals, we are able to understand the foundation for Rivera's future murals as we see his early self-discovery and understanding of Marxism, the influence of personal and national history, as well as his rejection of a traditional capitalist, Christian lifestyle. These paintings, while artistically exquisite and luminous, are also a demonstration of Rivera's revolutionary art, an ideal that Rivera poured into all of his public artwork.

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