Murals of Diego Rivera
"Frescoes are mural paintings done on fresh plaster. Using the fresco form in universities and other public buildings, Rivera was able to introduce his work into the everyday lives of the people. Rivera concerned himself primarily with the physical process of human development and the effects of technological progress. For him, the frescoes’ size and public accessibility was the perfect canvas on which to tackle the grand themes of the history and future of humanity. A life long Marxist, Rivera saw in this medium an antidote to the elite walls of galleries and museums."
This is a part of an article from the PBS Series Master Artist. It answers why Diego Rivera chose murals over canvas and public venues over private. It was his belief in the rights of all people to have access to art. You may also be aware he was married to the painter Frieda Kahlo, another famous Mexican artist. It was a unique and tumultuous relationship which is characterized in the film "Frieda". In the book Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver you will also find an interesting look into his political views and his relationship with Frieda Kahlo. Both the film and the book are wonderful and you will enjoy them a great deal. There are art books published on both Rivera and Kahlo, as well, as biographies. But Diego Rivera was the 20th century muralist master of our time. Other famous muralists of earlier periods are Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Diego spent time in Detroit studying industry where it did a series of 27 murals. Click on NPR for link. He the went to New York City to paint a mural for the Rockefeller Center. It became was very controversial due to its political nature. It was covered up and never shown in the United States.
"Flush from successes in San Francisco and Detroit, Rivera proposes a 63-foot-long portrait of workers facing symbolic crossroads of industry, science, socialism, and capitalism. The painter believes that his friendship with the Rockefeller family will allow him to insert an unapproved representation of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin into a section portraying a May Day parade. The real decision-making power lies with the Center's building managers, who abhor Rivera's propagandistic approach. Horrified by newspaper articles attacking the mural's anti-capitalist ideology, they order Rivera to remove the offending image. When Rivera refuses, offering to balance the work with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the opposing side, the managers pay his full fee, bar him from the site, and hide the mural behind a massive drape. Despite negotiations to transfer the work to the Museum of Modern Art and demonstrations by Rivera supporters, near midnight, on February 10th, 1934, Rockefeller Center workmen, carrying axes, demolish the mural. Later, Rivera recreates the frescoes in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, adding a portrait of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in a nightclub. Rivera never works in the United States again, but continues to be active, both politically and artistically, until his death in 1957." Excerpt from PBS Master Art Series
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| controversial mural created for Rockefeller Center |
