Painting of an Indigenous woman native to Mexico bent and seated on a brown floor, using red thread to create a geometric design on a backstrap loom. Earth tones dominate, while a dresser in the background and the bottom portion of the woman's white dress are a deep blue.

Weaving

1936

Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886–1957)

Mexico

Laboring at a backstrap loom in this painting is Luz Jiménez, a master weaver and Nahua, one of the largest Indigenous groups in Mesoamerica. With expertise and dexterity, Jiménez threads weft through warp, slowly building her intricately patterned textile, the completed portion resting on her lap. Diego Rivera, a leading modernist painter who came to prominence in the years after the Mexican Revolution (1910–20), promoted a vision of Mexican national identity rooted in Indigenous and folk cultures, distinct from the legacies of Spanish colonialism. By centering Jiménez in Weaving, Rivera claimed her traditions as part of his own.

Tempera and oil on canvas

Latin American

Arts of the Americas