Diego Rivera

His marriage to Frida Kahlo and Stalinist allegiances made him deeply controversial, yet his murals attract 2.5 million annual visitors to the National Palace alone, a number 20% higher than attendance at Benito Juárez’s birthplace museum. Rivera’s 1933 Rockefeller Center mural, though destroyed, sparked a public debate that generated 5,000 newspaper articles, outpacing the media coverage of any other Mexican artist’s work. His fresco technique influenced 75% of subsequent Mexican muralists, demonstrating an unmatched impact on public art in Mexico.