My Art, My Life: An Autobiography

by Gladys March and Diego Rivera

Book Overview

"Engrossing as a novel ... throws a clear white light on one of the most spectacular artists of our time." -- Chicago Sunday Tribune
This remarkable autobiography began with a newspaper interview the artist gave journalist Gladys March in 1944. From then until the artist's death in 1957, she spent several months each year with Rivera, eventually filling 2,000 pages with his recollections and interpretations of his art and life. Written...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486269388
• ISBN13: 9780486269382
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Diego's Life

The book has writing and highlighs on almost every single page!! The book itself and the story as told by the author was well done. Quite interesting. I did enjoy it.

Diego Rivera's Life Story

On a visit to Mexico City I saw this book at a store attached to a museum depicting some of the work of Diego Rivera, the Mexican mural painter. I promptly bought a paper - back copy of the book though at a greatly inflated price charged by the store. Gladys March, an American journalist, commenced interviewing Rivera in 1944 for this book but it was not until a final manuscript had been checked by Rivera shortly before his death in 1957, that the book was finally published in 1960. She has done a superb job in writing the book as though it were an autobiography in Rivera's own words. An absolutely fascinating 'extra' is the Appendix which recounts statements made by Rivera's four wives and/or live-in companions. I strongly recommend the book to anyone who admires Mexican mural painting and would like some knowledge of its supreme artist, Diego Rivera.

Fact and Fiction

This book is a mixture of fact and fantasy, the real real and imagined world as conjured by the mind of Diego Rivera as told to Gladys March. The invention of facts, the fabrication of the bits of truth to create a colorful story are the result of a newspaper interview that flourished into a series of interviews over many years. Beginning in 1944 and continuing until his death in 1957 Gladys March spent several months each year collecting over 2000 pages of notes that eventually formed the basis of this book. As another customer reviewer stated this is not the place to start when you reading about the life of Rivera since the lines between fact and fiction are blurred at best. A more accurate picture can be found in "dreaming With His Eyes Open" by Patrick Marnham. If you have a foundation in the life and times of one of the great Mexican artists than this book reflects a colorful and imaginative mind. The brillance of his art aside Diego reveals himself and makes no excuses for the parts of his pesonality that are less than desireable. He talks about his experiment in cannanbilsm, witchcraft, his blaphemous treatment of religion and the church, the communist party, his relationships with world leaders, artists and women, his advetures in Europe, the United States and Mexico, his troubles and ills , including his bout with cancer of the penis and in general the things that made his life as large as his physical presence. A very entertaining book that is easy to read because each small chapter deals with an extensive period of his life. All in all this is a good book to compliment other books on Rivera to get an even more accurate but distorted view of his brilliance. Included are several pictures and paintings from throughout his life. The man , the myth and the artist are here for you to decipher the truth and paint your own picture.