Diego’s Assistants

Though these artists worked as assistants, we only have records of Thelma Johnson Streat, Emmy Lou Packard, and Arthur Niendorff actually painting small areas Diego didn’t personally paint.

  • Emmy Lou Packard, 1914-1998; California; painter [Primary assistant. Our Collection has copies of her papers.]
    Click here to view the Emmy Lou Packard Papers, 1900-1980, at the Archives of American Art.
  • Mona Hofmann, 1910-1971; California; painter [She helped Rivera at Bellas Artes in 1934. Our Collection has her papers.]
  • Irene De Bohus, 1913-; American; painter [Originally slated to be primary assistant.]
  • Arthur Starr Niendorff, 1909-1976; Texas; plasterer, painter [Technical assistant]
  • Peter Lowe, 1913-1989; Chinese; painter
  • Thelma Johnson Streat, 1912-1959; African-American; painter [Left project to have show at LA’s Stendahl Gallery with Rivera’s help.]
  • Miné Okubo, 1912-2001; Japanese-American; painter [Worked demonstrating fresco technique. See https://diva.sfsu.edu/bundles/187038 at  2:12-2:30]
  • Matthew Barnes, 1880-1951; Scottish; painter [Primary plasterer until late in project.]
  • Paul Holmes Coates, 1911-1972; California; pigment grinder
  • Edna Wolff, 1907-2001; Chicago; painter
  • Wayne Lammers, n.d.; 1916-1996, San Francisco, artist
  • Milo Anderson, n.d.; plasterer
  • Ely de Vescovi/Bettina Whitman, 1910-1998, painter [Inventor of Butanol/water spray to keep fresco wet longer. Left project early.]
  • Una McCann Wilkinson, 1913-2013, Redwood City, CA, painter
  • James E Cummings, 1915-1945, California, painter [Died in plane crash in Burma at end of WWII.]
  • Angelo Anthony Sottosanti, 1917-2004, b. Pennsylvania, painter, pigment grinder at Art in Action.