Open Air School

November 1930

Arriving in San Francisco with Frida Kahlo

In September 1930 Rivera accepted architect Timothy Pflueger's commission for two works connected with his design projects in San Francisco, and in November he and Kahlo came to the city, living and working in the studio of the sculptor Ralph Stackpole, who had recommended Rivera to Pflueger.

1930s

Asylum for Leon Trotsky

Rivera obtained from President Lázaro Cárdenas asylum in Mexico for the political exile Leon Trotsky and sheltered him and his wife Natalia Sedova in his own house; later a conflict arose between them.

November 1931

Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art

In November 1931 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted a retrospective of Rivera's work, which Frida Kahlo attended with him; it took place shortly before he began the Detroit murals.

1933

A scandal over the portrait of Lenin

Rockefeller's son, the press and part of the public protested against the portrait of Lenin and the mural's pro-worker Marxist content; when Rivera refused to remove Lenin he was ordered to leave the United States.

December 1933

Return to Mexico from the United States

In December 1933 Rivera returned to Mexico, after being ordered to leave the United States for refusing to remove Lenin from the mural.

1934

The Rockefeller Center mural is destroyed

In 1934 the board of Rockefeller Center decided to destroy the fresco after Rivera refused to replace the portrait of Lenin with the face of an unknown man.