Google doodles for Diego Rivera

Today's Google Doodle celebrates one of the better known innovators in the art world, Diego Rivera. Rivera was born in Mexico on the 8th of December, 1886 and the doodle celebrates his 125th birthday. Rivera is reported to have started drawing at the age of three, one year after his twin brother died. His parents caught him drawing on the walls and instead of punishing him, they nurtured his artwork by installing chalkboards and canvas for the boy to use. At the age of 19, he went to Europe to study and while he was in Paris, he kept the company of artists like Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine.

Doodle for Diego

Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 and began his career there with a government sponsored mural program. His work, since then took him to Russia and the U.S and arguably, his most controversial work is "Man at the Crossroads", which he made as a mural for the Rockerfeller Center in New York, but was taken down due to the image of Vladimir Lenin in the mural. The mural has been supposedly destroyed, but he returned to Mexico and painted it again, calling it "Man, Controller of the Universe". Today's doodle represents the theme of Mexican turbulent history, which was a theme Rivera used regularly. Rivera is also known for his tumultuous marriage to Frida Kahlo and was represented by Alfred Molina in the 2002 movie, Frida.