Liberal Arts Blog- The Detroit Institute of Arts (Part One) The Diego Rivera Murals
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Today’s Topic: The Detroit Institute of Arts (Part One) The Diego Rivera Murals
I just ran into a tourist from Detroit and asked her what in her judgment were the three things most worth seeing in Michigan. At the top of the list was the Detroit Institute of Arts. I was shocked. I had no idea that Detroit has a great art museum. But it does. It has works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Brueghel, Durer, to name just a few. Today, the first in a series on its amazing holdings.
I have decided to start with perhaps the most controversial set of paintings — Diego Rivera’s 27 frescoes depicting the auto industry, Detroit, and the Ford Motor Company. Diego Rivera was a Mexican Marxist, an active member of the Mexican Communist Party, and a friend of Trotsky. During the McCarthy era there was a push to have the murals destroyed.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE SISTINE CHAPEL OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY — 1932–1933 — below is a disclaimer put up at the entrance of the exhibit during the McCarthy era
1. “Rivera’s politics and his publicity seeking are detestable. But let’s get the record straight on what he did here. He came from Mexico to Detroit, thought our mass production industries and our technology wonderful and very exciting, painted them as one of the great achievements of the twentieth century.”
2. “This came after the debunking twenties when our artists and writers found nothing worthwhile in America and worst of all in America was the Middle West.”
3. “Rivera saw and painted the significance of Detroit as a world city. If we are proud of this city’s achievements, we should be proud of these paintings and not lose our heads over what Rivera is doing in Mexico today.”
THE NORTH WALL — incredibly busy, hard to make out the story, not a fan, really, but impressive in its scale and detail, in a way like the Sistine Chapel, of which I am not really a fan, either
1. The two largest murals of the 27 completed by Rivera are located on the north and south walls of the interior court, now known as the Rivera Court. The murals depict the workers at the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan.”
2. “The north wall puts the worker at center and depicts the manufacturing process of Ford’s famous 1932 V8 engine. The mural also explores the relationship between man and the machine. In an age of mechanical production, the boundary between man and the machine was a commonly explored theme. While machines were made to imitate the abilities of man, and men had to respond to machines, workers and leaders were concerned about ethical rights for the working-class majority.”
3. “Rivera also incorporated such elements as images of blasting furnaces that made iron ore, foundries making molds for parts, conveyor belts carrying the cast parts, machining operations, and inspections. Rivera depicted the entire manufacturing process on the large north side mural.”
NB: “On the right and left side he portrayed the chemical industry: juxtaposing scientists producing poison gas f or warfare and scientists who are producing vaccines for medical purposes.”
THE SOUTH WALL — “the resemblance of the shape of the press to that of Coatlicue — the Aztec earth-mother goddess, who lived off human hearts — becomes transparent. The deity oversaw both creating and annihilating life.”
1. “The year of 1932, the year Rivera painted the Detroit Industry Murals, was the same year of the Ford Massacre. In this initially peaceful protest, workers began marching from Detroit to Dearborn, Michigan. They wished to present a list of demands to Ford Company management, but instead Ford security guards and policemen fired on the demonstrators. Ford security and Dearborn police injured more than 60 workers and killed 5 (one who was 16 years old). It was in this chaos that Rivera painted the murals of Ford workers and management.”
2. “On the South wall, Rivera pays tribute to the Aztec goddess Coatlicue by painting a pressing machine in her shape. This goddess was important in the creation of the universe, and Rivera places her among the workers whose labor is so important in the production of goods and services across the globe.”
3. “On the East wall, Rivera creates themes of rebirth and life. A child remains in the center of the wall and tributes to the early agricultural advances of humans adorn the left and right sides.”
NB: “The West wall contains the dark themes of death and destruction. While technology has helped to bring about a better life, Rivera acknowledged the new threats technology has created. Bomber planes and gas masks, hawks and doves fill the spaces of the West wall.”
FOOTNOTE — Diego Rivera (1886–1957) below Rivera and his third wife, Frida Kahlo (1907–1954)
1. “Rivera was born on December 8, 1886, as one of twin boys in Guanajuato, Mexico to María del Pilar Barrientos and Diego Rivera Acosta, a well-to-do couple. His twin brother Carlos died two years after they were born.”
2. “His mother María del Pilar Barrientos was said to have “converso” ancestry (Spanish ancestors who were forced to convert from Judaism to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries). Rivera wrote in 1935: “My Jewishness is the dominant element in my life”, despite never being raised practicing any Jewish faith, Rivera felt his Jewish ancestry informed his art and gave him “sympathy with the downtrodden masses”.
3. He had four wives and “numerous children.”
NB: Rivera was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party for his support of Leon Trotsky, with whom his wife, Frida Kahlo, would have an affair. Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 by NKVD agents on Stalin’s orders.
Detroit Institute of Arts — Wikipedia
Detroit Industry Murals — Wikipedia
Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry Murals
A discussion of the Detroit Industry Murals by Rivera.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned recently or ever related to art, sculpture, design, architecture, film, or anything visual.
This is your chance to make some one else’s day. And to cement in your own memory something cool or important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that is close to your heart.
