Few Modern artists have left a legacy as large as Diego Rivera. He was a leading member and founder of the Mexican Muralist movement along with David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco. Rivera’s works tackled artistic explorations alongside pressing themes of social inequality, politics, and Mexican history and culture. A singular figure within art history, Rivera and his wife, the artist Frida Kahlo, are among the few artists who achieved global recognition during their lifetime that has also grown posthumously.

In Mujer con alcatraces, Rivera applied the same stylistic properties found in his famed murals to a more accessible format. The artist was known to combine pre-Colombian references as well as other symbols of mexicanidad to enhance the thematic meaning of his works. In this painting, we find two of Rivera’s most iconic symbols – the calla lily (alcatraz in Spanish) and the Indigenous flower vendor who has prepared them.

By focusing on the Indigenous woman’s labor, Mujer con alcatraces comments on the history and culture of Mexico and highlights the often-overlooked role of Indigenous groups. Rivera further developed this commentary with his selection of flower in the painting. Although now associated with Mexico, the calla lily is a product of colonization, as it is native to Southern Africa. The flower is also considered a symbol of modernism due to its sculptural and geometric forms, and Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and Edward Steichen similarly featured calla lilies in their paintings. So, Rivera’s layered and nuanced use of this subject combines modernism and history, labor and beauty, resulting in a vision of Mexico’s past and future.

It is also important to note that another calla lily painting, Flower Day, became the first of Rivera’s paintings to enter a public collection in the United States when it was acquired by LACMA in 1925. Flowers have become a hallmark of Rivera’s career and Mujer con alcatraces is a prime example of how Rivera painted them to celebrate his Mexican identity. The expression of Mexican politics and economics through cultural symbols presents a palpable tension for the viewer. In Mujer con alcatraces, there is both a celebration of indigenous women and the critical eye of the economic opportunities afforded to them, and the painting celebrates Rivera’s unique ability to showcase both his technical skill as well as his ideologies.