Diego Rivera was one of Mexico 's most important muralist painters and a major artist of the twentieth century. Diego Rivera was born in 1886 in Guanajuato Mexico. He began his study of art in Mexico City . He later received a scholarship and traveled to Spain to study the works of Goya, El Greco, etc. He later moved to Paris and became interested in the avant-garde Cubist movement. Diego Rivera was influenced by the Mexican Revolution. He believed that art should help people understand the history of their country. He is considered by many as a painter of Social Realism, a form of naturalistic art focusing specifically on social issues and the hardships of everyday life. Diego Rivera began to paint frescos for public buildings. These frescos depicted Mexican history. In 1929 he married Frida Kahlo. His major works include: Creation (1922), Ministry of Education Building Mural in Mexico City (1923-1926), Mural at California School of Fine Arts (1933), Detroit Institute of Arts (1933), Palace of Fine Arts (1934) in Mexico city. Diego Rivera was commissioned to paint several murals in the United States . Such as murals for the garden Court of the Detroit Institute of Art. After the Detroit murals were completed, he was also commissioned to create murals in the corridor of the lobby of the RCA building in New York. In 1933, Rivera began work on the RCA mural which he entitled ìMan at crossroads looking with hope and high vision to the choosing of a new and better future.î Nelson Rockefeller visited the mural and asked Rivera to replace the face of Lenin, but Rivera offered to substitute the North American figures instead. In 1934, the RCA mural was destroyed. Diego Rivera had radical political views. He also had a turbulent romance with the painter Frida Kahlo. As a result, his personal life was and is still is of interest to the public. Rivera died of heart failure in 1957.