The Journey of Diego Rivera

This ambitious account of the Mexican muralist's life and art is as chock-full of allusions and images as one of Rivera's historical paintings. Unfortunately, however, the currents of discussion here never flow together in a way that's manageable for young readers. Information about the artist's personal life is played down in favor of exhaustive (sometimes exhausting) descriptions of how impressionism, cubism and Italian Renaissance perspective influenced the work. Later, Goldstein stresses the political and aesthetic aspects of Rivera's oeuvre as a response to his pre-Columbian heritage. The emphasis in Goldstein's discussion becomes skewed-the book focuses more on the glory of Mexican cultural traditions than on the glory of Rivera, implying that he is a great artist chiefly because of his attention to Mexican heritage. Rivera's more lyrical side gets little attention in this sometimes pretentious catalogue of the artist's ``hidden language behind a veil of concealments''; and too many reproductions are out of focus. Ages 10-up. (Feb.)