A major retrospective of 75 works by  Diego Rivera will open at the AGO on Oct 20, the Star has learned. Drawn mainly from the collection of Mexico’s Museo Dolores Olmedo, the exhibition will remain at the Grange until Jan. 20, 2013.

In other words, it will occupy the same slot as the current show about Marc Chagall and his Russian contemporaries, which is drawing big crowds in these final days as people realize this is their last chance to catch it.

“Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting” is the name of next fall’s blockbuster, on which the AGO is joining forces with the High Museum in Atlanta. Indeed, passion and politics are the key words associated with these two hot-blooded artists, who worked both together and apart at various times, and who often provoked debate, controversy and strong emotions.

Neither Rivera nor Kahlo could be called boring or predictable.

Both artists were committed communists and Mexican nationalists, with deep affinity for their country’s peasant roots.

Diego Rivera paintings was famous for biting social and political satire as well as a master of icons. Kahlo had flights of fancy that led some to label her a surrealist, but she claimed she painted her reality, not dreams.