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View Full Version : Diego Rivera’s Murals At Detroit Institute Of Arts Get Historic Landmark Status



blake 3:17
27th April 2014, 01:24
Diego Riveras Murals At Detroit Institute Of Arts Get Historic Landmark Status

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Diego Riveras murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts have been designated as one of four new national historic landmarks.
Federal officials announced the designation on Wednesday.
The Detroit Industry murals, based primarily on the Ford Motor Companys River Rouge plant, were conceived by Rivera as a tribute to the citys manufacturing base and labor force of the 1930s. Between July 1932 and March 1933, the Mexican artist completed the murals on all four walls of the DIAs Garden Court.
Considered by many scholars to be Riveras greatest extant work in the United States, Detroit Industry is an exemplary representation of the introduction and emergence of mural art in the United States between the Depression and World War II, The National Historic Landmarks Program said in a release.

The court walls are broken into segments with renaissance molding and columns within which Rivera painted 27 panels that make up the Detroit Industry mural series.
The panels depict industry and technology as the indigenous culture of Detroit and stress the relationship between man and machine and the continuous development of life. Technology is portrayed in both its constructive and destructive uses, along with the relationship between the North and South Americas, management and labor, and the cosmic and technological.
Rivera included a variety of faces and physiques in his figures, reflecting the multiracial work force at Ford as well as his own assistants on the mural project. His emphasis on the multiracial workforce in the automobile panels expressed a Marxist hope for the future power of the working class.

The largely symbolic landmark designation comes amid efforts to protect the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts from being sold as part of the citys bankruptcy.

The National Historic Landmarks Program offers technical assistance, recognition and funding for landmarks, but doesnt shield from ownership change

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/04/24/diego-riveras-murals-at-detroit-institute-of-arts-get-landmark-status/

blake 3:17
27th April 2014, 01:27
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/michigan/detroit/riveramurals/2534.jpg

M-L-C-F
27th April 2014, 01:48
It's good they're protected now. I just hope they stay in city hands. They're incredibly beautiful in person.

However the irony of Diego Rivera using Ford, is that Henry Ford was a Nazi supporter and sympathizer. He only let minority workers into Ford to profit off their labour. He distrusted black and Jewish workers especially. But making money off of George Washington Carver was perfectly fine to him. He also only allowed unions into Ford to shut workers up. Same goes with him trading with the Soviet Union. He only did it to try to profit off of it, as well as trying to manipulate the situation there. While aiding the Nazis and the Italian Fascists, and their war machines.

Hrafn
27th April 2014, 10:24
As someone studying cultural heritage at the moment, this is very nice.