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Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo are arguably the most celebrated Mexican artists of all time. After studying art in Mexico City as a young man, Rivera traveled to Paris before World War I and befriended a number of young modernists. Following the war and a brief stay in Italy to continue his studies, he returned to Mexico in 1921 to join the new mural program sponsored by the post-revolutionary government. Mural painting in Mexico was the primary pubic means by which to enshrine the nationalistic, social, and political ideals of the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920). In subject matter, the heart of this program was the campesina or rural peasantry, identified as a national symbol. Rivera, along with José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, helped initiate the Mexican Mural Movement and brought it to its finest expression. Because of their achievements, these three artists were collectively called Los Tres Grandes (The Three Masters). Rivera was not only a muralist but a distinguished oil painter and printmaker. By the early 1930s, his celebrity was acknowledged in North America and abroad. International acclaim followed Diego throughout his career.

http://www.mmoca.org/mmocacollects/artists/diego-rivera