I enjoyed learning about Diego Rivera and the making of his murals in this article called, The Detroit murals of Diego Rivera by Rybyan-Ling, Saronne. I did not know that in 1930, at a time of such dire straits during the start of the Great Depression the major American manufacturers of the Midwest constructed a movement to beautify the cities. It was called the City Beautiful Movement and it was started it because the cities were becoming overrun with too many buildings and cluttering the skylines. The movement strove for extensive monumental control of the ground (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 47, no. 3). Pretty much meaning that they wanted to beautify the ground.
During this movement a man named William Valentiner wanted to give the Detroit Institute of Arts, Garden Court a more local focus by commissioning a mural that would celebrate the city’s industrial achievements (The Detroit Murals of Diego Rivera, 1996). At this time Henry Ford was manufacturing cars in a factory called the River Rouge which gave inspiration to the city.
Usually, American artists (or Yankee’s) were asked to paint these murals in such conservative areas of the United States, but they chose Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera who was not an American, but a devout Communist from Mexico to paint this mural. It was because of Diego storytelling-painting style that they chose him. He painted with decorative simplicity of large-scaled forms and bold, clear colors that lend themselves to imitation as well as to a characteristic didactic and expository style and his mood in general is lyrical rather than emotional (Encyclopedia of Painting, fourth edition 1979). I love how he incorporated nature, technology and humankind in his frescos and how they are intended to teach. Apparently, the clergy depicted the opening scene as being against God and the traditional Nativity scene, but Rivera didn’t paint for religious reasons. Although Diego’s political beliefs were against the industrial financing that capitalism offered, Diego admired Ford’s technological achievements and was very excited to take this project on. In fact, he was so excited that the not only wanted to paint one panel, but he sketched out all twenty-seven panels of the Garden Court and was commissioned a whopping $25,000 for the project (The Detroit Murals of Diego Rivera, 1996).
Even though people knew that Rivera was a communist, they were able to put their political views aside and enjoy his art for what it was. It would be great if we could all do that in society today. Anyway, he was able to capture the working man’s struggles, but apparently not enough for the Left who thought he should have made it more obvious that workers needed better working conditions and higher pay. In one of the scenes, he was able to get a little political bias in though. There is a scene where he showed the machine workers faces clearly hard at work, but the workers on the bomb-making panel were blurred out like you can’t even tell they are human. In one of the frescos hidden on a hat of a worker, it says, ‘We Want’ referring to the anti-Prohibition slogan, ‘We Want Beer’ (The Detroit Murals of Diego Rivera, 1996).
Works cited:
Bluestone, Daniel M. “Detroit’s City Beautiful and the Problem of Commerce.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 47, no. 3, [Society of Architectural Historians, University of California Press], 1988, pp. 245–62, https://doi.org/10.2307/990300.
The Detroit murals of Diego Rivera, by Rubyan-Ling, Sarone, History Today; April 1996; 46, 4; ProQuest Central page 34
Encyclopedia of Painting, Painters and Painting of the World from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day, Fourth Revised Edidion, Crown Pubilshers, Inc., New York. Pg.418