Diego Rivera, Calla Lilly Vendor

(piano jazz music)

- [Narrator] We're looking at the painting

in the collection of the
National Bank of Mexico.

This is Diego Rivera's Flower Seller.

This is a representation
of an indigenous woman

with a huge bundle of calla lilies.

- [Narrator] Well that
bundle of calla lilies

is way bigger than she is
especially because she's kneeling

but her body is completely enclosed

within these fabulously
beautiful, sculptural flowers.

- [Narrator] Calla lilies
are these beautiful

abstract forms on their
own but Diego Rivera

was exploring their expressive qualities

and here he's handling
the color and the light

in a way that makes this canvas glow.

- [Narrator] The colors are fabulous,

the greens of the stems
of the calla lilies,

the ivory color of the lilies,

their white stamens, then
the blue of the clothing

worn by the indigenous
woman, her brown braids,

color of her skin, it's very
clear that Rivera is here

at once celebrating indigenous culture

but also pointing to the
poverty of indigenous people.

- [Narrator] And here is
the crux of the painting

or its tension or its problem,

finding a beauty and a
solemnity in that poverty,

in that want, in that suffering.

- [Narrator] But look at how those lilies

fill the entire space of the panel.

This is oil on masonite.

Up to the very corners where we just see

some beautiful blueish teal color,

down the stems toward the bottoms.

And it's interesting, the
figure is somewhat symmetrical,

her feet point inward,
her arms come out to

embrace that bunch of lilies but something

very mournful and melancholy.

- [Narrator] It's almost
as if in your imagination

if you remove the flowers,
she would almost be in a

position of prayer and
so there is something

very solemn and very quiet.

- [Narrator] But if we
were to imagine the rest

of her day it would be one of hardship.

She would be wandering a city or a town

selling these lilies and
this is very hard work.

- [Narrator] And Diego Rivera speaks of

looking to the everyday
life of the Mexicans,

the everyday life in the
marketplace for example,

for inspiration for his paintings.

- [Narrator] Rivera
recalled, "My homecoming,"

that is his return from Europe after

studying and painting there, he wrote,

"My homecoming aroused an
aesthetic rejoicing in me

"which is impossible to describe.

"Everywhere I saw a potential masterpiece-

"in the crowds, the
markets, the festivals,

"the marching battalions,
the workers in the workshops,

"the fields-in every shining
face, every radiant child."

So not looking at historic subject matter,

not looking at mythology, not
looking at religious painting

but finding inspiration in
the everyday life of Mexico.

(piano jazz music)