LACMA PLANS RIVERA EXHIBIT.

Byline: Reed Johnson Daily News Staff Writer

Following hard on the heels of its blockbuster Van Gogh show scheduled to open in January, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will host a major retrospective of works by the Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera this coming summer.

``Diego Rivera: Art and Revolution'' is being billed as the first major U.S. exhibition on Rivera in 13 years. Opening May 30, 1999, it will trace his entire career, emphasizing his contributions to muralism, symbolism, cubism, the post-World War I ``return to order,'' social realism and surrealism.

Including more than 100 paintings, prints and drawings - many on loan from Mexico and never before seen in this country - the exhibition provides further evidence of LACMA's desire to attract more visitors from L.A.'s burgeoning Latino population and to examine Latin America's contribution to modern art. A recent LACMA exhibition showcased its acquisition from the Bernard and Edith Lewin collection of more than 2,000 paintings and works on paper by such artists as Carlos Merida, David Alfaro Siquieros, Rivera and Rufino Tamayo.

``This exhibition will allow us to explore the unique path forged by Diego Rivera in the history of 20th-century art,'' said LACMA director Graham W.J. Beal. ``The comprehensive collection of works illustrates Rivera's many contributions to international modernism.''

Born in 1886, Rivera is associated with the golden age of Mexican muralism, a synthesis of European art-historic influences, socialist ideals and the heritage and forms of indigenous Mexico. The exhibition begins with Rivera's student work in Mexico, then follows his departure in 1907 to Europe to study painting. While living in Paris, Rivera met Picasso, Leger, Modigliani and Chagall, and by 1915 was well into his cubist phase.

Later he spent an extensive sojourn in the United States where he created numerous frescoes in New York, Detroit and San Francisco, in imagery that fused Gaugin with Aztec and Mayan. Like his late wife and fellow artist Frida Kahlo, Rivera is today perhaps more popular than at any time since his death in 1957.

Organized by the Consejo Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes through the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (Mexico) and the Cleveland Museum of Art, the exhibition will first visit Cleveland; followed by LACMA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes.

LACMA officials said additional information about the show will be released in coming weeks.

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Photo: ``Flower Day,'' a 1925 oil on canvas, will be part of a major retrospective on Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera. The show opens next May at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.