Man at The Crossroads

Man at the Crossroads:
Diego Rivera and his mural at Rockefeller Center1

Susana Pliego Quijano
The powers that be, having approved my conception, having praised my
execution, have decided not to allow it to be seen. So be it. Posterity will decide
the issue: some day the truth of my conception will be patent to the world.
Diego Rivera2
In 1929, the Wall Street stock market crash unleashed a great crisis, and with it, a
questioning of the structures of capitalist power. The Great Depression raised doubts
about capitalism, and led many to view the models of countries where popular
revolutions had triumphed, like Mexico and the Soviet Union, with mistrust tinged with
curiosity and exoticism, as evident in the cover of Fortune magazine for March 1932,
which displays an image of Moscows Red Square, painted especially for the occasion by
Diego Rivera (fig. 1).3
In the midst of the Great Depression, skyscrapers began to shape the city of New York.
The Rockefeller family, whose fortune came mainly from oil, was owner of the Standard
Oil Company. At one point it controlled 95% of the nations oil industry, and was
therefore one of the most powerful families of its time. Just steps away from the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the construction of Rockefeller Center became a labor
1 I am grateful to Caitlin Bruce, Mara Elena Gonzlez, Cathleen M. Paquette, Hilda Trujillo, Carlos
Enrquez Verdura, Luciano Matus, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio and Daniel Vargas for the support, conversations
and comments that enriched this text, although the responsibility for its content is entirely mine.
2 Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel of American Art, Diego Rivera on his Art, The London Studio,
London, July 1933, p. 26
3 The issue has a long article about the key figures and history of the Soviet Union, and promotions for
travel to the country. It is not known for certain whether this image or the parade that appears in Man at
the crossroads is actually a May Day parade, or whether the drawings were made during the massive
festivities surrounding the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. But it was Rivera that identified
them as May Day images in Diego Rivera and Gladys March, May Art, my Life, new York, Dover, 1991,
pp. 93 and 126. Dickerman maintains that they are from the October Revolution commemoration. Cf.
Leah Dickerman and Anna Indych Lopez, Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art, New
York, the Museum of Modern Art, 2011, exhibit catalog, p. 45, no. 17.
relief program for American workers, generating more than 40,000 jobs. Located in the
heart of Manhattan, the intention of Rockefeller Center or City was to be a city within
a city, a monument to the achievements of humanity: a cultural, economic, financial and
foreign trade center, which would restore confidence in capitalism, show the world the
Rockefeller familys spiritual values and commitment to social service, and promote
international relations. It was also a bet on the mass media, primarily through the
establishment of leading radio and television companies at the Center.4
The Rockefeller Center art program
The master plan for Rockefeller center included an art plan to decorate the fourteen
buildings that comprised the complex with a series of sculptures, reliefs, mosaics, photomurals and paintings by some of the greatest artists of the time, to complement the
architecture of Raymond Hood. Each element was discussed in the Art Committee,
which was made up of the architects, the managing agent, John Todd, and some members
of the Rockefeller family.5 The family patriarch, John D. Rockefeller Jr., left the
selection of the modern art to his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and his son Nelson.
Abby, an art lover, became one of the founders of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art
(MoMA) and one of the first American collectors of Diego Riveras work.6
The theme that was chosen for Rockefeller Center as a whole was New Frontiers,
alluding to the progress of humanity. The committee favored scenes and personages
inspired by Greek and Roman mythology, reminiscent of the classical age, the
foundations of western civilization. Classical myths and gods helped create a language
that would communicate a sense of endurance and strength for the Rockefeller Family.
4 See Peter J. Johnson and John Ensor Harr, The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of Americas
Greatest Family, New York, Charles Scribners Sons, 1988, and Robert Linsley, Utopia will not be
Televised: Rivera at Rockefeller Center, Oxford Art Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, 1994, y Cathleen M. Paquette,
Public Duties, Private Interests: Mexican Art at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, 1929-1954, Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2002, pp. 82 and ss.
5 Of the one million dollars budgeted for construction, $150,000 were allocated to the Art Project.
6 Abby Aldrich Rockefeller is known to have commissioned portraits of her grandchildren from Rivera,
acquired the watercolors for the H.P. (Horse Power) Ballet and the Russian sketchbook, and asked Ms.
Paine to secure a sketch of the painting Wall Street Banquet, to mention just a few of her Rivera
acquisitions.
The building at 30 Rockefeller Center, the highest in the complex as well as its physical
and symbolic core, was chosen to house the offices of the family patriarch, John D.
Rockefeller Jr., and those of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) (figs. 2 and 3).7
Diego Rivera remarked that, because its great height, the building seemed to disappear
into the heavens, because its top is frequently hidden in the clouds. 8 In this sense, it
might be considered a sort of axis mundi, a symbol expressing a point of connection
between the underworld, heaven and earth, at which all roads converge, the cosmic pole
that sustains the world and lies at the center of the universe. 9 The building at the heart of
Rockefeller Center provides an axis that joins what lies in the depths of the earthby
underground construction of a subway station and a sunken plazato the horizon of
human beings who walk the streets, and the heavens, because its towering height
symbolically joins the human plane with the divine.
The central plaza, ringed by the art deco buildings of the Center, welcomes visitors with a
massive golden statue of Prometheus by Paul Manship, located just across from the RCA
building (fig. 4). Legend has it that Prometheus, finding man naked and shoeless, and
with neither bed nor arms of defense stole the mechanical arts of Hephaestus and
Athena, and fire with themand gave them to man. 10 With this act, Prometheus set
human beings on the path to creation and wisdom to dominate the natural elements,
considered until then the provenance of the ancient gods and demi-gods. When we
become aware of these meanings, it is no surprise that this figure was a part of the
symbolic planning of Rockefeller Center.
Steps away, the main entrance to the RCA building would be decorated with a relief
sculpture representing wisdom (fig. 5), inspired in William Blakes watercolor etching
Ancient of Days (God as the Great Architect of the Universe) (fig. 6). The image refers
7 The 70-storey building is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, between 49th and 50th streets and between
Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), just behind the sculpture of Prometheus. On the
65th floor, the famous Rainbow Room restaurant-terrace welcomes New Yorks elite. The building later
became the headquarters for General Electric (GE) and the National Broadcasting Company (NCB).
8 Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel, op. cit., p. 26.
9 Cf. Mircea Eliade, Tratado de Historia de las Religiones, Mexico, Era, 1973, p. 273.
10 Plato, Protagoras or The Sophists, in Dilogos, Mexico, Porra, 2009, p. 156. Remember that Jos
Clemente Orozco painted Prometheus at Pomona Colleges Frary Hall in California, in 1930.
to the Prime Creator and his representation as a geometrician, with a compass in one
hand, tracing the world.11 Above this image a passage from the book of Isaiah is
inscribed: Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times. On either side
of wisdom appear representations of sound and light, in keeping with RCAs bet on radio
and television. This works prepare the viewer for the paintings in the buildings lobby, a
pictorial cycle that would continue the same philosophical tone. The Great Architect of
the Universe and Prometheus allude to the creative capacity of gods and men. Thus, the
experience of Diego Riveras mural cannot be separated from path traveled to reach it,
from the urban, through the spatial, to the symbolic.
We have arrived at the lobby of the main building, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a place that
would be decorated by paintings and occupiedephemerallyby Man at the crossroads.
Because of its location, Riveras work marked the central axis of the building. Its
creation opened a series of discussions that I will attempt to place in context in this
chapter. Today, almost eighty years after those events, two questions arise that we must
bear in mind: Rivera was surely aware that the Rockefeller family would not allow the
image of a communist leader in the lobby of the main building, a space that the powerful
magnate would traverse daily on the way to his offices. And what led the architects and
the Rockefeller family to think that the theme of choosing a road in Man at the
crossroads, for an openly communist painter, would be coherent with the principles they
held dear? Taking these questions into account, and based on research into various
publications and documents basically in the personal archives of Diego Rivera and Frida
Kahlo, and the sketches that have been discovered of the work, including the four
belonging to the Museo Diego Rivera-Anahaucalli collection, I will attempt to narrate the
course of events.
Diego Rivera, the Rockefeller family and the MoMA
By 1933, the year in which he painted the mural at Rockefeller Center, Diego Rivera was
an influential and controversial artist who enjoyed considerable international prestige. As
the peoples artist, as he was fond of calling himself, Rivera had decorated various
11 This is a concept that comes primarily from masonry. Many members of the Rockefeller family have
been masons, including John D. Rockefeller Jr. himself.
public buildings in Mexico.12 Mexican muralism was considered an original and

completely new artistic movement, primarily because it was large-format public art in
which people stood in for kings and gods as protagonists in History. Muralists sustained
that only the production of monumental works in the public domain was valuable; they
considered art to be a weapon, a form of collective education, and propaganda.13 Just as
mural painting was earlier used by the church to educate, teach and transmit Christianity,
the murals of post-revolutionary Mexico helped generate a collective image of the nation,
exalting the essence of Mexicans and capturing it on the face of public buildings that
were crucial to the construction of a post-revolutionary State.
In contrast with the predominantly peasant background of much of Mexico, Diego Rivera
admired industrialization, science and technology as pillars of American development.
The United States, he said, expresses its creative force and its sense of beauty through
machines and through the scientific research that creates machines, 14 concluding that it
was thus the most propitious place to continue my work.15 Full of curiosity, the painter
decided to accept the proposal to paint murals in the United States. His first stop: San
Francisco. Riveras participation in the Mexican Arts exhibit at New York Citys
Metropolitan Museum of Art in late 1930, as well as commissions in San Francisco,
helped establish his fame, although he came under heavy fire from his communist
comrades for taking money from the great capitalist magnates.
Paradoxically, Diego Rivera met MoMA directors Alfred Barr Jr. and Jere Abbott when
he visited Moscow, between October 1927 and mid-1928, during the celebrations
commemorating the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. The outcome of this
meeting was an invitation from Barr to mount a solo exhibit at the recently created
12 By 1933, Rivera had decorated the amphitheater of the National Preparatory School, the Ministry of
Public Education, the National Agricultural School at Chapingo and the Palace of Cortez in Cuernavaca,
and had begun the murals at the National Palace.
13 See the Manifesto of the Union of Workers, Technicians, Painters and Sculptors (SOTPE), published in
El Machete no. 7, 2nd half of June 1924.
14 Anita Brenner, Diego Rivera: Fiery Crusader of the Paint Brush, The New York Times Magazine,
April 2, 1933, p. 10.
15 Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, New York, Covici, Friede, 1934, p. 13
institution. Cultural agent Frances Flynn Paine served as a liaison between the MoMA,
the Rockefeller family, and the artist (fig. 7).16
The MoMA opened its doors on November 7, 1929, just nine days after the Wall Street
stock market crash. Its first solo exhibits were devoted to two foreign artists: the first
was Henri Matisse and the second was Diego Rivera. The show by the Mexican artist
took place from December 23, 1931 to January 27, 1932, and broke attendance records in
the five weeks it remained open to the public.17 This major exhibit helped legitimize
Riveras work and establish his place among the worlds great artists. At the same time,
living in New York and spending time with the Rockefeller family, the museums primary
patrons, Rivera was able to understand the transcendence of Rockefeller Centers
construction as the greatest work of its time, and its importance in promoting the image
of the powerful family.
For the exhibit, Rivera created eight portable murals on site. Three of them refer to
Rockefeller Centers construction: Pneumatic drill, Electrical Energy and Frozen assets
(fig. 8).18 The last of these decries the ravages of the crisis. The painter divides the citys
reality into three levels: below, an underground vault safeguards the valuables of the
wealthy; in the middle, the unemployed masses sleep side by side in a warehouse that has
been converted into a municipal shelter;19 and above, the great skyscrapers of New York
are the backdrop for hundreds of people traveling along on the subway. It is interesting to
note that Rockefeller Center lies majestically at the heart of the composition. It is the only
structure that does not appear whole, but truncated, so that the viewer cannot see the top
16 Frances Flynn Paine was an art broker, cultural representative, creator of the Mexican Arts Association.
She charged a 20% commission on the sale of Riveras work, including the commission for the RCA
building. Paine visited Mexico City in Fall 1931 to organize the exhibit and accompany the painter and his
wife, Frida Kahlo, to New York. For a more detailed analysis of Paines relationship with the Rockefeller
family, see Cathleen M. Paquette, op. cit.
17 A total of 56,519 people visited the exhibit, which was recently commemorated with a show entitled
Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art at the MoMA from November 2011 to May 2012.
See Leah Dickerman and Anna Indych-Lpez, op. cit.
18 The painter prepared eight portable murals especially for the exhibition: Agrarian leader Zapata;
Sugarcane; Liberation of the peon; Indian warrior; The uprising; Frozen assets; Electrical Energy; and
Pneumatic drill.
19 Description taken from Diego Rivera and Gladys March, op. cit., p. 110
of the building.20 This visual mutilation is in some sense a foreshadowing of what would
happen in the lobby of the main building with the destruction of Riveras fresco.
Portrait of Detroit
After the success at the MoMA, Diego and Frida moved to Detroit. Rivera decorated the
walls of the Garden Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts for Edsel B. Ford, the son of
Henry Ford and president of the Ford Motor Company. The themes were the aesthetics of
the machine, industry, and modernity. The painter spoke of his dream of painting, in the
industrial heart of America, the epic of industry and the machine, the beauty of the
machines adaptation of marvelous form to no less marvelous function, the embodiment
in it of human intelligence and human cooperation in labor, its potentialities for the
mastery of nature and the liberation of man.21 The murals were received with some
controversy. A panel entitled Vaccination sparked a media outrage because the public
believed its resemblance to a nativity scene was sacrilegious.
Rockefeller Center in the spotlight
John D. Rockefeller Jr. was well aware of the painters subversive character and
communist ideas, and of his criticism of capitalism in the murals of the Ministry of Public
Education, where Rivera had painted John D. Rockefeller Sr. in a fresco entitled Wall
Street Banquet (fig. 9). I believe that in his decision to commission the main decoration
of his building from Diego Rivera, Rockefeller was swayed by the admiration his wife
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller had for the artist. Perhaps another aspect that led more than
one capitalist patron to turn a blind eye to the painters socialist leanings was his works
value in the international art market.
The muralist was deeply impressed, not just by New York but by the extraordinary
construction of the Rockefeller complex, prompting him to ask his agent Frances Paine to
seek out a commission to paint frescos, murals and other decorations in the development
20 The Empire State Building, which appears smaller in this image, was opened in 1931 and had more
than a hundred floors, so actually Rockefeller Center was not the tallest complex in the city.
21 Bertram D. Wolfe, The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, New York, Stein and Day, 1963, p. 302.
known as Rockefeller Center.22 In asking Ms. Paine to pursue such contracts, Rivera
expressed his interest in painting at the greatest construction of its time. The site was
perfect for a mural: a majestic, emblematic New York building through which crowds of
people would move, an icon of capitalist development and the embodiment of modernity
in all its splendor (fig. 10).
Paine succeeded in interesting the Rockefellers in inviting Rivera to participate in the
Rockefeller Center art program. It appears that the first proposal was for Rivera to enter a
competition to create a mosaic celebrating the American geniuses in the lobby of the
RCA building, at the Sixth Avenue entrance, a project that Rivera rejected.23 But Rivera
did enter the competition to decorate the main lobby of that building. The muralist would
share a space with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, who rejected the invitation. Initially,
Rivera also refused to participate in the selection process, saying he had painted enough
for people to know his value as an artist. One can always have me make a sketchand
take it or leave it-but NO competition.24 It seems, however, that Diego Rivera was not
about to let such a sizeable commission slip through his fingers, since it was he who
initiated the search, so even in the company of lesser artists like Jose Mara Sert of Spain
and Frank Brangwyn of Great Britain, he would not pass up the opportunity to make his
mark on such an important wall: at the heart of Rockefeller Center. The commission was
controversial from the start, as critics argued that such an important spot should have
been given to American artists.
The lobby of the RCA building: its decorative program
The site for the mural was considered the most important of the entrances.25 The
Rockefeller family put together various committees to select the artists that would
22 Frances Paine would charge a 20% commission. Paine to Rivera, 28 March, 1932, Diego Rivera and
Frida Kahlo Archive (hereinafter, DRFKA)
23 Paine to Rivera, May 6, 1932, DRFKA. Mr. Hood wrote a telegram to Rivera on May 11 that read: I
am very sorry I cannot accept, May 11, 1932, DRFKA.
24 Lucienne Bloch, On Location with Diego Rivera, Art in America, February 1986, p. 107.
25 Business Interests, Record Group 20 MR, Series C, box 98, folder 98, Rockefeller Family Archives. I
am grateful to Caitlin Bruce for her generosity in sharing the information on the documents in this archive,
as well as the Rockefeller Center Archives.
decorate Rockefeller Center.26 The planning included a number of documents detailing

the aesthetic program, prepared by various company officials.27 In a text entitled Theme
that the Art Committee was to deliver to the artists, the theme of the decorations at
Rockefeller Center was established as New Frontiers (fig. 11). The painters should see
the development of United States as a nation. [] Today our frontiers are of a different
kind. There are no new physical territories to explore and settle. Man cannot pass up his
pressing and vital problems by moving on. He has to solve them on his own lot. The
development of civilization is no longer lateral; it is inward and upward. It is the
cultivation of mans own soul and mind, the broadening and deepening of his relations
with his fellowmen, the coming in to a fuller comprehension of the meaning and mystery
of life.28 The emphasis was to be on the spiritual development of the human being. The
Rockefeller family wanted people, upon entering the building, to pause and think and to
turn their minds inward and upward. We are not interested in having these paintings retail
facts or events, but rather, we hope, they may stimulate not only a material but above all a
spiritual awakening.
Sert and Brangwyn were to work on symbolizing, respectively, Mans New Relation to
Matter [] his power, his will, his imagination, and his genius, the last being the divine
spark [], and Mans New Relation to Man. That is mans new and more complete
understanding of the real meaning of the Sermon on the Mount [] his family
relationships, his relationships as a worker, his relationships as part of government, and
his ethical or religious relationships. An important precedent that reveals the level of
control the architects wished to exercise on the commissioned works is that they
suggested to Brangwyn that he eliminate the figure of Christ that appeared in his mural.
26 Among the committee members were directors of museums and top-ranking educational institutions,
like Edward W. Borbes, Fiske Kimball, Everett V. Meeks, Paul J. Sachs, and Herbert E. Winlock, Ibidem.
27 These included public relations director Merle Crowell and George A. Vincent. For an analysis of the
various documents on the decorative program, see Cathleen M. Paquette, op. Cit., pp. 82 and ss. A
document entitled The Theme, mentions that Rivera was considered for decoration of other sites in
Rockefeller Center. Ibidem.
28 Theme. Re Painting in Great Hall of No. 1 Building Rockefeller Center, September 30, 1932,
DRFKA.
Rivera was assigned the theme of Man at the crossroads and looking with uncertainty
but with hope and high vision to the choosing of a course leading to a new and better
future. It is here that we begin to wonder what would have led the Rockefeller family to
believe that Rivera, whose political positions were well-known, and his conception of a
new and better future would conform to the ideas and the capitalism they embraced..
The same document explains that the canvases were to be prepared in a monochromatic
range of white, black and grey, finished with two or three coats of varnish, and be in New
York ready to be set in place by April 1, 1933. The guidelines also establish that each
canvas must be signed by the artist with name and date, well away from the borders to
avoid having the signatures cut off at the time the canvases were placed. This precision
reveals how important it was for the planners to put together a collection of works by the
most renowned artists of the time, and to ensure that their authorship was unquestionable.
Thus, the project placed an emphasis on its bet on renowned artists, ensuring, in addition,
a good financial investment, which underscored the capitalist nature of the commission.
Rivera was aware of the importance of the issue, and above all, of the space where it
would be represented, so he adjusted his proposal to highlight them:
The wall under consideration is located at the precise axis of the group. Consequently, the
principal function of the painting was to express this axis and at the same time the height
of a sixty-seven story building [] The intersection of the macrocosm and the
microcosm in the atom, the cell, and the Man, establishes the exact plastic center of the
building, while the different scenes around them express the building's relative position in
space and time..29
So the worker at the center of the mural would be at once the axis of the wall, of the
building, and of Rockefeller Centernot precisely an apt representation of a capitalist
leader.
Man at the Crossroads: the inception
The written documents and sketches for the mural reveal a creative process that was
neither linear nor simple, but rather involving of a series of complicated negotiations and
conflicts between the Rockefellers, Diego Rivera, the press and the public. As we will
discover, the composition he finally painted is very different from what the Rockefeller
family and their architects approved.
The first draft of the mural is a quick sketch on a sheet of lined paper founded in the
Diego Rivera archive at the Museo Frida Kahlo30 (fig. 12). The structure of this first
unpublished sketch remains unchanged up until the signing of the contract in at least two
other preparatory sketches. The first is a pencil sketch dated November 1, 1932 and
approved by the architectural firm on November 7, 1932 (fig. 13), which is now part of
the MoMA collection. The second, prepared on canvas on a much larger scale, includes
some touches of color (fig. 14). The latter belongs to the collection at the Museo Diego
Rivera Anahuacalli and is very possibly the one that was approved by Todd and Hood,
architects for the Rockefeller family, since to obtain their final approval the work had to
produced on the same fabric as the paintings, with the canvases that were sent for the
painter to work on during his stay in Detroit.31
The composition was structured as a triptych, since the mural was to cover the three sides
of the elevator bank located in the center of the lobby. According to the painter, the visual
function of the central panel was to express the axis of the building and its majesty.32 At
the center appears the revolutionary trinity, a common image of the communist
imaginary, as can be seen in a photograph of three men (soldier, peasant, and laborer)
crossing the hammer and sickle (fig. 15). The revolutionary trinity was also a common
30 Lucienne Bloch claims that the idea of uniting the representations of the macro and microcosmos, and
of the atom, was hers (Lucienne Bloch, op. Cit., p. 108). Note, however, that Diego Rivera had already
represented the human being as an image of the macrocosmos in The Star of Humanity, in the entryway
to the chapel at Chapingo.
31 The architectural firm send the canvases to Rivera to paint on during his stay in Detroit (H. & A.C.
Friedrichs Co. to Diego Rivera, October 19, 1932, DRFKA. On November 7, 1932, Raymond Hood sent a
telegram to the painter, saying that the sketch was approved by Rockefeller and that he could proceed to
prepare drawings on a larger scale (DRFKA). On November 13, 1932, Rivera wrote Raymond Hood to say
that the sketch was not ready to send to New York because it was not dry (DRFKA).
image in Mexican murals of the post-revolutionary period.33 In Riveras preparatory

drawing, a worker joins hands with a wounded soldier who has returned from war and a
peasant who wears a checkered shirt. The worker is the figure that would later take on the
face of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Russian Bolshevik revolution, in the murals
final version.
After the triad, in what seems to be a great window on the Universe, another three figures
look at planets, comets and other astral bodies through telescopes. Scenes from the
microcosmos flow out on both sides: microorganisms and cells are visible through
microscopes, underscoring the role of technology in helping the human being to see
beyond what his eyes allow and connecting atoms and cells with the astral system []
Exactly in the median line, the cosmic energy received by two antennae is conducted to
the machinery controlled by the Worker, where it is transformed into productive
energy.34
On both sides of the central group there are pairs of images projected on screens
surrounded by structures made up of pipes and other industrial elements, just as Rivera
had admired in Detroits industrial plants. Film and television made it possible for
viewers to observe, if only partially, other realities. In this sense, the mural alludes to
photo-montage, as a type of collage connecting a number of scenes. On the screens,
antennae conduct signals represented by waves that flow throughout the composition.
Technological process can be used to wage war or to cure people of various illnesses, and
to use nature to benefit humankind.
On the left had side appears a representation of socialism. On one screen, a parade in
Moscows Red Square is projected, showing Lenins tomb in the background and a great
number of red flags waving above the crowd, inspired by notes and photographs of
Riveras stay in Russia, which served as a source for this segment of the mural (fig. 16).35
33 See Susana Pliego, Los murales de Diego Rivera en Chapingo, doctoral thesis for PhD in Art history,
UNAM, Department of Philosophy and Literature, 2009.
34 Document submitted by Rivera to the Art Committee. Cf. Bertram Wolfe, op. Cit., p. 260
35 An extraordinary notebook of the artists sketches was acquired by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, now part
of the MoMA collection. Diego Riveras relationship with Russia goes back to his stay in Paris, where he
On another screen, this time a movie screen, a filmmaker projects a group of women
athletes, highlighting the importance of physical health in the well-being of society. A
smaller inset reveals workers wearing gas masks in a factory. Before them, mothers and
children play peacefully.
On the right, as an opposite pole, appears the representation of capitalism. In the
uppermost screen we can see an army of soldiers wearing gas masks. Rivera kept one of
these masks, that can still be seen at the Casa Azul in Coyoacan (fig. 17). On the lower
screen we see the dejected unemployed, victims of the Great Depression; they are lining
up to obtain handouts of food from the State. Children on the capitalist side play tug-ofwar, competing to win, in contrast to the harmonious circle on the communist side.
The right-hand segment was entitled The Frontier of Ethical Evolution or the
liquidation of superstition through science, and it shows human intelligence in
possession of the forces of nature, a panel dominated by a massive classical sculpture of
an ancient Roman god, depicting lightning striking off the hand of Jupiter and being
transformed into useful electricity that helps to cure man's ills, unites men through radio
and television, and furnishes them with light and motive power. Below, the Man of
Science presents the scale of Natural Evolution, the understanding of which replaces the
Superstitions of the past.36 A monkey extends a hand to a child, referring to Charles
Darwins theory of the origin of the species,37 while an X-ray machine alludes to science
replacing idolatry and superstition, in a positivist approach to History. Rivera visited an
X-ray laboratory in New York to document this technological advance, as can be seen in
these photographs. Riveras assistant Stephen Dimitroff appears in one of them, and in
another we can see X-rays of a skull, possible sources for the mural (figures 18 and 19).
spent time with Angelina Beloff and Marevna Vorobiev, among other soviet personages.
36 From the synopsis signed by Rivera in the Rockefeller Center Archives, also quoted in Laurance P.
Hurlburt, The Mexican Muralists in the United States, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press,
1989, p. 159. Also in Bertram D. Wolfe, op. cit., p. 259.
37 In the mural at the Bellas Artes palace in Mexico City, the man of science is Charles Darwin, but in the
New York version, the painter did not finish the fragment, so we do not know if he intended to include
Darwin. In the preparatory drawing at Anahuacalli, this figure does not appear.
The left-hand segment features another semi-destroyed classical sculpture. This time is it
Caesar, a symbol of political power in ancient Rome, with its head lying on the ground.
This represents the death of Tyranny or the frontier of material development []
Workers arriving at a true understanding of their rights regarding the means of
production, which has resulted in the planning of the liquidation of Tyranny, personified
by a crumbling statue of Caesar, whose head has fallen to the ground. It will also show
the Workers of the cities and the country inheriting the Earth. 38 The Roman Caesar is
replaced by the revolutionary trinityworker, soldier, peasantsurrounded by women
and children. The hands of the producers are placed on a map of the world that rests on
sheaves of wheat sustained by a dynamo, symbolizing agricultural production supported
by machinery and scientific technique, which results in an evolution of the means of
production. 39 In the background, three factory chimneys allude to the labor of humankind
as a condition for generating a new order.
The contract
Up until this point, Rivera had given no signs of provocation. He visited the site where
the work would be located, submitted the preliminary drawings requested of him, and
signed the corresponding contract on November 2, 1932 (fig. 20).40 To prevent any
conflict in advance, the Rockefeller family clearly stipulated the conditions of the
commission in a detailed document that the muralist signed with no objections. The
works were to be painted on canvas in a palette of greys, black and white.
The sketches were to be approved by the architects and faithfully followed. The
document is unequivocal: If our architects shall not approve of the sketches in their
original form, or as the same may be changed by you pursuant to the suggestions, if any,
of said architects, we shall have the right to cancel this agreement at once by giving you
written notice by registered mail of our desire so to do. In such event, we shall return said
sketches to you, and neither you nor we shall be under any further liability one to the
other, and you shall have the right to retain the payment made by us to you upon the
delivery of this agreement [] In doing the final paintings, the sketches [] shall be
38 Hurlburt, op. cit., p. 159.
39 Ibidem.
40 Contract between Diego Rivera and Rockefeller Center, November 2, 1932, DRFKA
faithfully and closely followed.41 The clause specifically mentions the consequences of
any authorized change in the work, so Rivera knew that the contract would be canceled if
he did not faithfully follow the sketches. Note also that the document says our
architects, which reveals that the people who conceived and drafted the philosophical
conception were members of the Rockefeller family, very possibly Abby and Nelson,
who always acted as mediators between the architects and the painter. The price agreed
upon for the commission was $21,500 dollars. The contract also stipulates that the
Rockefeller familys architects were to return the sketches to the painter in the event of
cancellation, and is it very possibly owing to this clause that Rivera kept the sketches that
are today held in the Museo Diego Rivera-Anahuacalli collection.
The architect Raymond Hood traveled to Detroit to approve the sketch, signing it without
a single question. Rivera signed the contract in the same way. According to Lucienne
Bloch, he told Hood: You signed my sketch without looking it over. You trust me, I trust
you! 42 While Sert and Brangwyn stuck to the conditions of the contract and agreed to
paint on canvas in a monochromatic range, from the moment the contract was signed
Rivera began to negotiate and modify the points established in the document in a long
series of battles in which the painter triumphed, one by one.
The first battle was the change of medium: from oil on canvas to fresco. The architects
preferred to hang finished works instead of having scaffolding and materials present
during the final phase of the buildings construction (opening was planned for May 1,
1933). But Rivera saw fresco as a more appropriate technique for intervention in the
building, since a mural painting must be an integral part of the building that sustains it.
As he said: Nothing can take the place of fresco in mural painting, because fresco is not
a painted wall, but rather a painting that is a wall. 43 The painting would take on greater
meaning, since, as it became a part of the building, dollars could not pull it off the wall
that held it, so its permanence was guaranteed. Although there are techniques for
removing a mural, practically the only way is to destroy it with a chisel and hammer,
41 Ibdem.
42 Lucienne Bloch, op. cit., p. 108.
43 Diego Rivera, Arquitectura y pintura mural, in Diego Rivera: textos de arte, op. cit., p. 206.
leaving what we might call a scar in the building. Rivera wrote to Abby Aldrich
Rockefeller begging her to allow him to paint in fresco, not just because it was his
preferred medium and a familiar language, but because of the architectural beauty of the
building it will be a thousand times better; beautiful fresco, than the hateful, lined
canvas. 44 This letter very likely helped convince the architects that fresco was the right
technique for a work of this nature.
The second battle was over the use of color, an issue that fueled an intense debate
because the contract stipulated that the work would be executed in tones of grey that
would match the composition of the buildings materials. But for the painter, color was
necessary to emphasize this vital center of the building, diminishing the color in two
lateral panels until it lost itself in the simple chiaroscuro of the two series of canvases to
be mounted on the side walls. 45 He thought the lack of color would give the space a
funereal feeling, and with this argument convinced the architects to permit the use of
color; another win for Rivera.
Furthermore, Mr. Todd wrote to Diego, venturing that the composition seemed too
saturated, to which Diego answered that it did not have too much, but just what is
necessary for clear understanding and good taste. He goes on to ask: Do you think that
in the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo there is too much?46 With this, the third
battle was won. Finally, and equally as important, Rivera deviated significantly from the
preparatory drawings approved by the Rockefeller family, changed the compositional
structure of the mural, but even so finished three-quarters of it before the terrible scandal
arose.
Diego and Frida move to New York
In January 1933, Rivera sent two of his assistants, Art Niendorf and Stephen Pope
Dimitroff, to New York to build a metal structure covered with five layers of mortar to
44 Rivera to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, November 5, 1932, Business interests, Record group 20 MR,
Series C-Business Series, box 94, folder 706, Rockefeller Family Archives.
45 Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel of American Art, op. cit., p. 23.
46 Rivera a Todd, November 11, 1932, DRFKA.
minimize any vibration from the elevators. Lucienne Bloch (fig. 21), whom Rivera had
met at a dinner when he arrived in New York in December 1931 and became a key figure
in the publicity surrounding the mural, because it was she who took the photos before it
was destroyed, took some preparatory photographs, because in case the mural should
have to be removed, we needed to know exactly what was under the fresco surface.47
Could they anticipated the possibility of the murals destruction?
Diego and Frida arrived on March 20, just after finishing the murals in Detroit. 48 Since
we know that the painter stopped work at Rockefeller Center on May 9, it seems that
there were just six weeks of intensive work on the mural.
As a tireless researcher with a personal mandate to represent the truth of things, Diego
received advice from scientists, engineers, biologists, inventors and doctors.49 According
to writer Anita Brenner, Rivera believed that a work to which more than one person has
distributed labor is always superior to a purely individual product; and that is why, he
says, he prefers mural paintings.50 Various helpers51 contributed to this collective work,
among them Lucienne and Stephen, who would later on marry and become muralists in
their own right. (figs. 22 and 23).
The transition of the image
The composition began to shift and simplify, as can be seen in the preparatory drawing
called Technical man (fig. 24), part of the Anahuacalli collection. The basic elements
remain, but others are integrated. The revolutionary trinity is moved from its central
location and appears in a scene off to the side. The central figure is now a man
47 Lucienne Bloch, op. cit., pp. 105 y 106.
48 Dates taken from Hurlburt, op. cit., p. 166. The couple stayed at the Barbizon Hotel.
49 V.K. Zworkin, a researcher hired by RCA and a pioneer in television, introduced him to cathode ray
tubes and other new technologies. A professor of radiotherapy at New York Cornell Medical Center
allowed him to make sketches and take photographs, while a professor of pediatrics at the Brooklyn Jewish
Hospital allowed him to draw bacteria and images seen through the microscope. See Anita Brenner,
Diego Rivera: A Crusader of Art, New York Times Magazine, April 2, 1933, p. 19. Lucienne Bloch says
her brother Ivan helped him with the drawings of the cathode ray tubes. Lucienne Bloch, op. cit., p. 113.
50 Anita Brenner, Diego Rivera, A Fiery Crusader, op. cit., p. 19.
51 Andrs Snchez Flores, Ernst Halberstabt, Ben Shahn, Lou Block, Arthur Niendorff, Hideo Noda,
Stephen Dimitroff y Lucienne Bloch.
controlling a great machine, now the absolute center of the composition. The
microcosmos and the macrocosmos appear in the form of two intersecting ellipses. The
scenes of the parade in Red Square, the athletes, the war, the line of unemployed, remain
in place. A series of circular elements evoking film reels refer to the new technologies.
The final version
The triptych format remained, although the central composition is dramatically more
dynamic than in previous version. In the center, along with the great machines, the scenes
framed by the two large ellipses are now circular, perhaps referring to the Nipkov disk,
with is distinctive circular pattern.52 The right hand side represents The liquidation of
superstition (fig. 25); the left, The death of tyranny (fig. 25); and the center, Man at the
crossroads (fig. 27). The mural presents a synthetic, dualistic vision of the areas of
human knowledge. The conception went from a philosophical one to a political one,
polarizing the two systems that were the only possible philosophical-political models of
the time: capitalism and socialism. These are balanced compositionally by the crossing of
the two great ellipses that create areas for three scenes on each side. Demonstrating his
capacity to simply express a very complex iconography, the painter explained his vision:
the individualistic scheme of things existing has brought the world to chaos--war and
unemployment--and that the hope of the future lies in the organization of producers into
harmony and friendship and the control of the natural forces through high scientific
knowledge and the development of the skilled worker." Socialism, if you like.53 There is
no ambiguity here: socialism will lead human beings to harmony, health and well-being,
while the ravages of capitalism are there for all to see, right in New York, where the
mural will be painted.
Scientific knowledge and modernity are expressed in a profusion of airplanes, dynamos,
telescopes and microscopes, televisions, cathode ray tubes and movie screens, which in
some way recognize the industrial power of the United States while at the same time
52 The Nipkov disk was the earliest way to obtain images that could be transmitted by televisin. Cf.
Vladimir Kosma Zworkin y George Ashmun Morton, Television: The Electronics of Image Transmission,
New Jersey, J. Wiley & Sons, 1940, p. 243
presenting a fantastic world like what we might see in science fiction. A dynamo appears
as a circular structure that frames the scene and gives it energy and movement.
The mural proposes the generation of a continent peopled by numerous delegations of
all the races of humanity, to realize in the future the synthetic human compound divested
of racial hates, jealousies, and antagonisms, the synthesis that will give birth to intelligent
and producing Man, master, at least, of the earth, and enjoying it in the high knowledge
of creative energy and without the exploitation of his fellows.54 Thus, wisdom, union
and technology will bring a better future. Two enormous lenses magnify the central
elements of the composition to students and workers sitting in various mixed groups.
The two great ellipses intersect. At one axis, a telescope allows us to see and comprehend
the most distant celestial bodies: planets, constellations, nebula and sundry stars represent
the macrocosm. Among them, we see the moon, an image probably taken from a
photograph acquired at the Museum of Natural History (fig. 28). Hidden in this universe
we spy a five-pointed star with the crossed hammer and sickle, the emblem of
communism (fig. 29)55 The other axis of the ellipse is a representation of the microcosm,
inhabited, on the capitalist side, by thousands of magnified germs that cause illnesses like
syphilis, gonorrhea, gangrene, tuberculosis and tetanus, 56 while on the socialist side we
see scenes of conception, cell division, and an embryo growing in utero, even as a
cancerous cell representing Stalinism threatens to destroy the new life. 57
The central axis of the fresco, and therefore of the building and Rockefeller Center, is a
worker. In the center, Man, the intelligent and producing skilled worker, controls vital
energy and captures it for his own uses through the machine and by means of his
knowledge of the life of the vast inter-stellar spaces and of the immensity of micro54 Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, op. cit., p. 29.
55 The sickle symbolizes rural workers, and the hammer industrial workers. Together, they represent the
union of workers that together form the proletariat. The red star alludes to the give fingers of the workers
hand and the five continents communism aspired to reach. These three together are the primary emblems
of communism.
56 See sketch in Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel, op. cit., p. 24.
biologic space; while the mechanized hand, symbol of human power in action, grasps
within its fingers the vital sphere.58 Atomic fusion has been identified within this sphere.
59
Of course: if human beings must choose between the two paths, the best choice is
socialism.
Capitalism is represented on the right hand side in three scenes that depict war,
destruction, corruption, sexually transmitted diseases, economic disparity and
unemployment. According to the painter, the soldiers with the gas masks show Chemical
warfare, typified by hordes of masked soldiers in the uniforms of Hitlerized Germany;
unemployment, the result of the crisis; the degeneration and persistent pleasures of the
rich in the midst of the atrocious sufferings of the exploited toilers.60 Committed to
representing reality, Rivera replaced the bread line of unemployed in previous versions
with a repression of workers on Wall Street. Demonstrators carry placards reading We
want bread! We are hungry! We want work! According to Lucienne Bloch, the scene
comes from a photo that Ben Shahn showed Rivera, and which documents a violent
demonstration on Wall Street in desperate protest against the conditions of the
Depression. 61 Showing a battery of mounted police repressing the hungry people right
beside a frivolous bourgeoisie drinking champagne and playing bridge was a stinging
provocation. Not only that, but John D. Rockefeller was a supporter of prohibition, so the
inclusion of alcoholic beverages in the picture was also an act that put to test the patience
and tolerance of the Rockefeller family.
On the communist side, two of the scenes that appeared in the first sketches remain: the
women athletes and the soviet masses organized into a demonstration in Red Square,
under the shadow of the Kremlin and Lenins tomb, inspired by photographs of the 1928
marches in Moscow (fig. 30). Between the two ellipses, replacing the worker in the
revolutionary trinity, appears Lenin, joining hands with the workers, a soldier and a
peasant of African descent, among other representatives of the people (fig. 31). Beside
58 Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, op. cit., p. 29.
59 Laurance P. Hurlburt, op. cit., p. 163.
him, a mother suckles her infant, while a young couple embraces. In the words of the
painter, it shows in the realization of Lenins vision the sole possibility of living,
growing and reproducing love and peace.62
The two life-sized drawings that belonging to the collection at the Museo Diego RiveraAnahuacalli prove that the composition continued to change. The liquidation of
superstition remained on the south wall, and The death of tyranny on the north wall (figs.
and
). Rivera introduced the racial component in both compositions by adding people
of various races. In The death of tyranny, in the place formerly occupied by workers, we
see people that seem to be airplane pilots. Among them is the first woman to cross the
Atlantic, Amelia Earhart.
The famous portrait of Lenin
Rivera claims that the famous labor leader was always present in the composition. This is
not totally clear from the evidence, however. In the preparatory drawings that survived,
there is a labor leader, but he does not seem to bear any resemblance to the Soviet
revolutionary. According to Lucienne Bloch, Lenins presence was a latter addition,
inspired by an article by journalist Joseph Lilly that appeared in the World Telegram on
April 24, 1933, headlined: Rivera paints scenes of communist activity and John D. Jr.
foots bill. 63 This blunt affirmation scandalized American society and provoked a
reaction in the artist: if people really believed the mural was communist, it would be
openly and explicitly communist.
Rivera took one step further, asking his assistants to get him a photograph of Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin.64 The assistants obtained various photographs, very probably the ones now
in the artists archive, which, in addition to the uncanny resemblance to the portrait on the
mural, bear a stamp indicating that they were acquired on 42nd street in New York (figs.
32 and 33). Rivera replaced the face of the labor leader joining the peasant and the
64 Ibidem, pp. 115-116. Jos Clemente Orozco had already represented Lenin in 1931 in the mural
Struggle in the West at the New School for social Research, also in New York. But because it was located
in a meeting room within a school, the mural did not spark the public debate that Rivera experienced
soldier in the spirit of fraternity with that of Lenin (fig. 34). According to the painter, the
intend was to show Lenin as the Leader, guiding the exploited masses towards a new
social order based on the suppression of classes, organization love and peace among
human beings, in contrast to the war, unemployment, starvation, and degeneration of
capitalist disorder.65 The storm broke only a few days later.
The controversy
Riveras radicalism grew. The portrait of Lenin was just another on a long list of
provocations. The entire conception was distasteful to the bourgeoisie. Rivera challenged
his patrons in many ways: to begin with, negotiating various points and modifying the
composition after the contract was signed. But also in changing the technique from oil on
canvas to fresco, in painting the symbols of communism in the ellipse corresponding to
the microcosmos, including peoples of African descent, painting the communist flags
bright red, depicting repression on Wall Street while the upper classes blithely socialize
with syphilis and gonorrhea hovering behind them. In contrast, on the socialist side, we
see the organized masses, the athletes, the harmonious games and the united workers.
This dichotomy tells us that if man is at the crossroads and must choose between one path
or another, he would obviously prefer socialism, which proposes fraternity, harmony and
health. It was inconceivable that a fresco of this nature would welcome John D.
Rockefeller on his way to his offices on the buildings 56th floor.
On May 4th, Nelson A. Rockefeller wrote a friendly letter to the painter asking him to
replace Lenins face with that of an unknown person; the argument was that the mural
was in a public space, and the inclusion of that image might offend many people who
passed through the building (fig. 35). This was the start of a brief but intense storm that
lasted less than a week, from May 4th to the 9th, during which time there was an exchange
of letters between Nelson A. Rockefeller, Rivera and the architects, and which would end
in the cancellation of the contract and, ultimately, the destruction of the fresco.
The letters show that the Rockefeller family and their architects were willing to negotiate,
while the painter argued and stuck to his inflexible stance on the replacement of the
figure that had made his patrons so uncomfortable. The mood became tense and
uncertain. Sensing imminent action by the architects if the painter would not back down
from his demands to complete the contract, Lucienne Bloch hid her camera to take some
shots of the mural, today the only evidence of the work that survives today (figs. 36, 37,
and 38).
Rivera responded on May 6 (fig. 39) in a carefully drafted document, possibly aware of
how important it would become.66 In the letter, he argued that Lenin was there from the
start, in the written description and in the sketch, as an abstract representation of the
concept of leader, an indispensable human figure. Rivera argued that he had simply
moved Lenin to another less real space, as if projected by a television apparatus. A
television image, of course, can come from a distant time and place. The painter refused
to erase Lenin, but offered to change the sector of the capitalist vices to balance out the
composition and place instead the figure of Abraham Lincoln, a symbol of national unity
and the abolition of slavery, surrounded by other American leaders. The presence of both
leaders would make the general significance of his work clearer.
Rivera added: I am sure that the class of person who is capable of being offended by the
portrait of a deceased great man, would feel offended, given such a mentality, by the
entire conception of my painting. Therefore, rather than mutilate the conception I should
prefer the physical destruction of the conception in its entirety, but conserving, at least, its
integrity.67 It is interesting to note here that Rivera highlights the fact that the American
public might be insulted not only by the figure of Lenin, but by the entire concept of the
mural. It was perhaps this assertion that caused the Rockefeller family and its architects
to take a closer look at the mural, and thus to observe that the real theme of the work was
the choice of socialism over capitalism. Furthermore, Rivera is the first to mention the
possibility that the fresco would be destroyed before being mutilated or censored. Could
66 Diego Rivera to Nelson Rockefeller, May 6, 1933, DRFKA. The letter was revised by Ben Shahn,
since Rivera spoke French and Russian, but not English.
67 ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN FOOTNOTE UNNECESSARY
it be that at this point in the conflict, the painter saw the destruction of his own work as a
radical act that could serve as socialist propaganda?
The architects send a letter to Rivera by Ms. Paine on the morning of May 9, asking him
to make the suggested changes:
The description you gave usof the subject matter of your proposed mural decorations
at Rockefeller Center, and the sketch which you presented to us at about the same time,
both led us to believe that your work would be purely imaginative. There was not the
slightest intimation, either in the description or in the sketch that you would include in
the mural any portraits or any subject matter of a controversial nature. Under the
circumstances we can not but feel that you have taken advantage of the situation to do
things which were never contemplated by either of us at the time our contract was made.
We feel therefore that here should be no hesitation on your part to make such changes as
are necessary to conform the mural to the understanding we had with you. 68
The architects noted the discrepancies between the contract the description of the agreedupon theme that Rivera had been assigned, leading them to feel that the painter had
taken advantage. The debate became a performance act. Rivera refuses again to
replace Lenins face, and the architectural firm responds the same day: Under these
circumstances and much to our regret, we, the Managing Agents of Rockefeller Center,
feel that no alternative is open to us except to request you to discontinue work on the
mural forthwith. This request we hereby make, thus terminating our contract with you
(fig. 40).69 The Rockefeller family paid the outstanding balance, as evidenced by the
corresponding receipt (fig. 41) and escorted the painter and his helpers out of the
building.70 This was the last day the Rivera worked on the mural.
68 Hugh Robertson to Diego Rivera, May 9, 1933, DRFKA.

69 Todd, Robertson, Todd Engineering Corporation a Diego Rivera, May 9, 1933, DRFKA.
70 Of the $14,000 dollars he received, the painter paid Frances Paine $3,000 for her work in obtaining the
commission (the receipt is in the DRFKA). Bertram D. Wolfe, Riveras friend and comrade in the
Communist Party, served as director of the New Workers School. The muralist decided to use the money
paid by Rockefeller to paint a 21-panel mural entitled Portrait of America. In them, he repeated Lenins
face and added other communist heroes.
The construction firm made the following statement:

Rivera's fresco has now reached the stage where it is clear that neither in general
treatment, nor in detail, will it fit into the unified decorative theme planned for the
great hall. In other words, irrespective of its merits as a painting, it is artistically
and thematically incongruous. These facts were called to Mr. Rivera's attention and
he was requested to make certain changes which would bring his fresco into
harmony with the architectural conception of the great hall. This he was unwilling
to do: consequently, Mr. Rivera has been paid his contract price and the fresco is no
longer in public view."71
The quality of the artwork was never in question; the debate was always about the theme;
the use of the mural as communist propaganda was totally unacceptable. On May 9,
Rivera recalls, Mr. Robertson of Todd, Robertson and Todd, surrounded by his staff.
Protected by a triple line of men in uniform and civilian clothes, Mr. Robertson invited
me down from the scaffold to parley discreetly in the interior of the working shack and to
deliver the ultimatum along with the final cheque. I was ordered to stop works.72
Signs of support materialized immediately (figs. 42, 43, 44, 45 and 46). Rivera dedicated
himself to broadcasting the event and making propaganda against his patron.
The mural was shrouded in a series of white cloth frames (fig. 47). The painter described
the event in mythical detail: The entrance to the building was closed off with a heavy
thick curtain (was it also bullet-proof?), while the streets surrounding the Center were
patrolled by mounted policemen and the upper air was filled with the roar of airplanes
flying round the skyscraper, menaced by the portrait of Lenin. 73 The reactions were not
long in coming. At this moment, a series of demonstrations and displays of support for
Rivera were begun, as well as those defending the Rockefeller family (fig. 48 and 49).
The national and international press announced that The nations richest man had
71 Rockefellers ban Lenin in RCA mural and dismiss Rivera, The New York Times, May 10, 1933
ordered the veiling of the portrait of an individual named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, because
a painter had represented him in a fresco as the Leader, guiding the exploited masses
towards a new social order based on the suppression of classes, organization love and
peace among human beings, in contrast to the war, unemployment, starvation, and
degeneration of capitalist disorder.74 Rivera gave conferences and wrote a series of
articles saying that he had gone to the United States not just for the art, but for the
purpose of applying art to the cause of the proletariat. (figs. 50, 51 and 52). 75
What is certain is that Lucienne Blochs photographs made a tour of the world, as evident
in their many appearances in newspapers, magazines and cultural supplements telling of
the incident, helping to mythologize the events and, although this was not the Rockefeller
familys intent, to promote Lenins ideas (figs. 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58 and 59).76
The painter did not see his work as destroyed. He pointed out that the reproductions by
the world press brought his painting to millions of people, more than would have been
able to view it at Rockefeller Center. He also said he intended to rebuild it.77 The matter
of the mural was referred to Todd, Robertson and Hood, and thus, to protect the familys
image, Abby was pushed aside in the debate over the mural. Nelson A. Rockefeller had a
plan to save the fresco by removing it from the wall and taking it to the MoMA, but for
reasons that are not clear, but undoubtedly had to do with the murals ideological content,
his idea never materialized. 78 Finally, the Rockefeller family chose to remain silent, and
to avoid any responsibility for the frescos fate. 79

75 El Arte de Diego Rivera y la causa del proletariado, El Universal, May 15 1933.
76 Irene Herner de Larrea compiled more than a hundred articles mentioning the matter. See Irene Herner
de Larrea, Diego Riveras Mural at the Rockefeller Center, Mexico, Edicupes, 1990.
77 The event also had repercussions on Riveras projects. On May 11 he was notified of the cancellation
of a commission to paint a mural at the Chicago Worlds Fair entitled Century of Progress.
78 For an analysis of this proposal, see Cathleen M. Paquette, op. cit., pp. 107 and ss. On December 15,
1933, John R. Todd wrote to Nelson Rockefeller saying he had no objections to moving the mural provided
the cost was covered by the museum, without serious damage and without interfering with the elevator
system. He also stressed the need to manage the information to prompt the appropriate response from the
public. Business interests / 2 OMR, Series C-Business Series, Box 94, 706, Rockefeller Family Archives.
79 Cfr. Laurance P. Hurlburt, op.cit., pp. 170 y ss.
The destruction
On February 9, 1934, employees armed with hammers and chisels destroyed the murals
that, almost a year earlier, had unleashed a fierce debate between the Rockefeller family,
their builders, the painter and the public. The remains filled various oil drums.
Rockefeller Center Inc. issued a press release: "The Rivera mural has been removed from
the walls of the RCA building and the space replastered. The removal involved the
destruction of the mural".80 Lucienne Bloch visited the site mere days after the
destruction and wrote to Frida: Now the wall is level and white. I scratched the plaster to
see if perhaps they hadnt just painted it overbut not even thatthe whole thing has
been torn up completely.81
The murals destruction polarized the international cultural climate: there were those in
favor of the artist and the defense of an artwork itself, regardless of who might own it,
and in favor of freedom of expression. For these, the destruction was seen as a terrible
act of censorship (figs. 60 and 61). But there were also those who defended the
Rockefeller family, arguing that, because it was a commissioned work installed in private
property, the owner had the right to destroy the material work if he was not fully satisfied
with it.
Diego Rivera was back in Mexico when he learned of the destruction. He used all the
communications media available to him to decry the acts and raise a scandal. To El
Universal, he stated, the events gave me a bitter satisfaction, because the action of
capitalists, assassinating an artwork, despite the stigma of vandalism and lack of culture
that it has brought down upon them, proves that the revolutionary meaning of the
painting was strong enough for them to prefer to murder it, thus destroying the patient
and hypocritical work they have done through donations and scientific and philanthropic
foundations for years, to excuse themselves before human society for all the social crimes
they committee to amass the fortune they possess. 82 The bitter satisfaction he
80 Rockefeller Center / 393 / 1934. Rockefeller Center Archives.
81 Lucienne Bloch to Frida Kahlo, February 15, 1934, DRFKA Jos Mara Sert replaced the mural with a
canvas painting on the theme American progress or Mans conquests.
82 Oscar Leblanc, Diego Rivera y Rockefeller: asesinato de una obra artstica: el famoso fresco borrado
es conocido ya en todo el mundo, El Universal, February 15, 1934, pp. 1 and 7.
expresses reveals his intention to execute a work whose revolutionary meaning was
enough for its destruction to reveal the truth behind the Rockefeller family fortune and
capitalist values. Thus, Rivera termed the destruction cultural vandalism, comparable to
Hitlers barbaric book-burning on May 10, 1933 at the Bebelplatz in Berlin, only days
after the mural contract was canceled, or the massacre of workers in Colorado by the
Rockefeller family at the Ludlow mine in Colorado in 1914 (figs. 62 and 62).83
Reproduction of the mural at the Palacio de Bellas Artes
Diego and Frida returned to Mexico in 1934. In June, the Mexican government signed a
contract with the painter to reconstruct the composition at Mexico Citys Palacio de
Bellas Artes, soon to be opened. Rivera used the sketches and photographs of Lucienne
Bloch as a starting point for this work (fig. 64). It remains a painting that, with some
iconographic adjustments and others relating to space limitations, is the closest we can
come to imagining the mural at Rockefeller Center (figs. 65 and 66). But the political
and cultural climate in Mexico at that time was very different from New York, so the
mural did not have the same repercussions as the New York version. The works radical
quality was lost when it was rebuilt far from the heart of capitalism, and because it had
not been commissioned by one of the most powerful capitalist families of its time.
Perhaps in a gesture that could connect both frescos, and in testimony to the mural that
came before it, the painter included a portrait of John D. Rockefeller Jr., glass in hand, in
a scene of capitalist decadence, very close to the germs that cause venereal disease. This
time he went further, including, alongside Lenin, Marx, Engels, Trotsky, Lovestone,
Bertram D. Wolfe and other communist leaders waving the flag of the Fourth Communist
International.
To strike at the heart of capitalism with such a radical act clearly proved the painters
deep political convictions, while setting the stage for an ethical debate over ownership,
the value of art as such, regardless of its owner, and above all, art as a tool for
propaganda and political struggle. Perhaps the Rockefeller Center mural fulfilled its
purpose by being destroyed: to serve as socialist propaganda in the center of the capitalist
83 The painters original is the draft of a text that circulated in various media, like the World Telegram,
the Herald Tribune and the New York Times, to name but a few.
world, to promote socialism as a viable political system for a classless society, to use the
mass media as instruments of power by revealing to the world the intolerance of powerful
capitalist families. New York would recover from the crisis, but the wound at its symbolic
center remains.
I am grateful to Caitlin Bruce, Mara Elena Gonzlez, Cathleen M. Paquette, Hilda Trujillo, Carlos
Enrquez Verdura, Luciano Matus, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio and Daniel Vargas for the support, conversations
and comments that enriched this text, although the responsibility for its content is entirely mine.
Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel of American Art, Diego Rivera on his Art, The London Studio, London,
July 1933, p. 26
The issue has a long article about the key figures and history of the Soviet Union, and promotions for
travel to the country. It is not known for certain whether this image or the parade that appears in Man at
the crossroads is actually a May Day parade, or whether the drawings were made during the massive
festivities surrounding the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution. But it was Rivera that identified
them as May Day images in Diego Rivera and Gladys March, May Art, my Life, new York, Dover, 1991,
pp. 93 and 126. Dickerman maintains that they are from the October Revolution commemoration. Cf.
Leah Dickerman and Anna Indych Lopez, Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art, New
York, the Museum of Modern Art, 2011, exhibit catalog, p. 45, no. 17.
See Peter J. Johnson and John Ensor Harr, The Rockefeller Century: Three Generations of Americas
Greatest Family, New York, Charles Scribners Sons, 1988, and Robert Linsley, Utopia will not be
Televised: Rivera at Rockefeller Center, Oxford Art Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, 1994, y Cathleen M. Paquette,
Public Duties, Private Interests: Mexican Art at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art, 1929-1954, Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2002, pp. 82 and ss.
Of the one million dollars budgeted for construction, $150,000 were allocated to the Art Project.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller is known to have commissioned portraits of her grandchildren from Rivera,
acquired the watercolors for the H.P. (Horse Power) Ballet and the Russian sketchbook, and asked Ms.
Paine to secure a sketch of the painting Wall Street Banquet, to mention just a few of her Rivera
acquisitions.
The 70-storey building is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, between 49th and 50th streets and between Fifth
Avenue and Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), just behind the sculpture of Prometheus. On the 65th
floor, the famous Rainbow Room restaurant-terrace welcomes New Yorks elite. The building later
became the headquarters for General Electric (GE) and the National Broadcasting Company (NCB).
Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel, op. cit., p. 26.
Cf. Mircea Eliade, Tratado de Historia de las Religiones, Mexico, Era, 1973, p. 273.
Plato, Protagoras or The Sophists, in Dilogos, Mexico, Porra, 2009, p. 156. Remember that Jos
Clemente Orozco painted Prometheus at Pomona Colleges Frary Hall in California, in 1930.
This is a concept that comes primarily from masonry. Many members of the Rockefeller family have been
masons, including John D. Rockefeller Jr. himself.
By 1933, Rivera had decorated the amphitheater of the National Preparatory School, the Ministry of Public
Education, the National Agricultural School at Chapingo and the Palace of Cortez in Cuernavaca, and had
begun the murals at the National Palace.
See the Manifesto of the Union of Workers, Technicians, Painters and Sculptors (SOTPE), published in El
Machete no. 7, 2nd half of June 1924.
Anita Brenner, Diego Rivera: Fiery Crusader of the Paint Brush, The New York Times Magazine, April 2,
1933, p. 10.
Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, New York, Covici, Friede, 1934, p. 13
Frances Flynn Paine was an art broker, cultural representative, creator of the Mexican Arts Association.
She charged a 20% commission on the sale of Riveras work, including the commission for the RCA
building. Paine visited Mexico City in Fall 1931 to organize the exhibit and accompany the painter and his
wife, Frida Kahlo, to New York. For a more detailed analysis of Paines relationship with the Rockefeller
family, see Cathleen M. Paquette, op. cit.
A total of 56,519 people visited the exhibit, which was recently commemorated with a show entitled
Diego Rivera: Murals for the Museum of Modern Art at the MoMA from November 2011 to May 2012.
See Leah Dickerman and Anna Indych-Lpez, op. cit.
The painter prepared eight portable murals especially for the exhibition: Agrarian leader Zapata;
Sugarcane; Liberation of the peon; Indian warrior; The uprising; Frozen assets; Electrical Energy; and
Pneumatic drill.
Description taken from Diego Rivera and Gladys March, op. cit., p. 110
The Empire State Building, which appears smaller in this image, was opened in 1931 and had more than a
hundred floors, so actually Rockefeller Center was not the tallest complex in the city.
Bertram D. Wolfe, The Fabulous Life of Diego Rivera, New York, Stein and Day, 1963, p. 302.
Frances Paine would charge a 20% commission. Paine to Rivera, 28 March, 1932, Diego Rivera and
Frida Kahlo Archive (hereinafter, DRFKA)
Paine to Rivera, May 6, 1932, DRFKA. Mr. Hood wrote a telegram to Rivera on May 11 that read: I am
very sorry I cannot accept, May 11, 1932, DRFKA.
Lucienne Bloch, On Location with Diego Rivera, Art in America, February 1986, p. 107.
Business Interests, Record Group 20 MR, Series C, box 98, folder 98, Rockefeller Family Archives. I am
grateful to Caitlin Bruce for her generosity in sharing the information on the documents in this archive, as
well as the Rockefeller Center Archives.
Among the committee members were directors of museums and top-ranking educational institutions, like
Edward W. Borbes, Fiske Kimball, Everett V. Meeks, Paul J. Sachs, and Herbert E. Winlock, Ibidem.
These included public relations director Merle Crowell and George A. Vincent. For an analysis of the
various documents on the decorative program, see Cathleen M. Paquette, op. Cit., pp. 82 and ss. A
document entitled The Theme, mentions that Rivera was considered for decoration of other sites in
Rockefeller Center. Ibidem.
Theme. Re Painting in Great Hall of No. 1 Building Rockefeller Center, September 30, 1932, DRFKA.
Lucienne Bloch claims that the idea of uniting the representations of the macro and microcosmos, and of
the atom, was hers (Lucienne Bloch, op. Cit., p. 108). Note, however, that Diego Rivera had already
represented the human being as an image of the macrocosmos in The Star of Humanity, in the entryway
to the chapel at Chapingo.
The architectural firm send the canvases to Rivera to paint on during his stay in Detroit (H. & A.C.
Friedrichs Co. to Diego Rivera, October 19, 1932, DRFKA. On November 7, 1932, Raymond Hood sent a
telegram to the painter, saying that the sketch was approved by Rockefeller and that he could proceed to
prepare drawings on a larger scale (DRFKA). On November 13, 1932, Rivera wrote Raymond Hood to say
that the sketch was not ready to send to New York because it was not dry (DRFKA).
See Susana Pliego, Los murales de Diego Rivera en Chapingo, doctoral thesis for PhD in Art history,
UNAM, Department of Philosophy and Literature, 2009.
Document submitted by Rivera to the Art Committee. Cf. Bertram Wolfe, op. Cit., p. 260
An extraordinary notebook of the artists sketches was acquired by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, now part of
the MoMA collection. Diego Riveras relationship with Russia goes back to his stay in Paris, where he
spent time with Angelina Beloff and Marevna Vorobiev, among other soviet personages.
From the synopsis signed by Rivera in the Rockefeller Center Archives, also quoted in Laurance P.
Hurlburt, The Mexican Muralists in the United States, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press,
1989, p. 159. Also in Bertram D. Wolfe, op. cit., p. 259.
In the mural at the Bellas Artes palace in Mexico City, the man of science is Charles Darwin, but in the
New York version, the painter did not finish the fragment, so we do not know if he intended to include
Darwin. In the preparatory drawing at Anahuacalli, this figure does not appear.
Hurlburt, op. cit., p. 159.
Ibidem.
Contract between Diego Rivera and Rockefeller Center, November 2, 1932, DRFKA
Ibdem.
Lucienne Bloch, op. cit., p. 108.
Diego Rivera, Arquitectura y pintura mural, in Diego Rivera: textos de arte, op. cit., p. 206.
Rivera to Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, November 5, 1932, Business interests, Record group 20 MR, Series
C-Business Series, box 94, folder 706, Rockefeller Family Archives.
Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel of American Art, op. cit., p. 23.
Rivera a Todd, November 11, 1932, DRFKA.
Lucienne Bloch, op. cit., pp. 105 y 106.
Dates taken from Hurlburt, op. cit., p. 166. The couple stayed at the Barbizon Hotel.
V.K. Zworkin, a researcher hired by RCA and a pioneer in television, introduced him to cathode ray tubes
and other new technologies. A professor of radiotherapy at New York Cornell Medical Center allowed him
to make sketches and take photographs, while a professor of pediatrics at the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital
allowed him to draw bacteria and images seen through the microscope. See Anita Brenner, Diego Rivera:
A Crusader of Art, New York Times Magazine, April 2, 1933, p. 19. Lucienne Bloch says her brother Ivan
helped him with the drawings of the cathode ray tubes. Lucienne Bloch, op. cit., p. 113.
Anita Brenner, Diego Rivera, A Fiery Crusader, op. cit., p. 19.
Andrs Snchez Flores, Ernst Halberstabt, Ben Shahn, Lou Block, Arthur Niendorff, Hideo Noda, Stephen
Dimitroff y Lucienne Bloch.
The Nipkov disk was the earliest way to obtain images that could be transmitted by televisin. Cf.
Vladimir Kosma Zworkin y George Ashmun Morton, Television: The Electronics of Image Transmission,
New Jersey, J. Wiley & Sons, 1940, p. 243
Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, op. cit., p. 29.
The sickle symbolizes rural workers, and the hammer industrial workers. Together, they represent the
union of workers that together form the proletariat. The red star alludes to the give fingers of the workers
hand and the five continents communism aspired to reach. These three together are the primary emblems
of communism.
See sketch in Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel, op. cit., p. 24.
Laurance P. Hurlburt, op. cit., p. 163.
Ibidem, pp. 115-116. Jos Clemente Orozco had already represented Lenin in 1931 in the mural Struggle
in the West at the New School for social Research, also in New York. But because it was located in a
meeting room within a school, the mural did not spark the public debate that Rivera experienced
Diego Rivera to Nelson Rockefeller, May 6, 1933, DRFKA. The letter was revised by Ben Shahn, since
Rivera spoke French and Russian, but not English.
ENGLISH TRANSLATION IN FOOTNOTE UNNECESSARY
Hugh Robertson to Diego Rivera, May 9, 1933, DRFKA.
Todd, Robertson, Todd Engineering Corporation a Diego Rivera, May 9, 1933, DRFKA.
Of the $14,000 dollars he received, the painter paid Frances Paine $3,000 for her work in obtaining the
commission (the receipt is in the DRFKA). Bertram D. Wolfe, Riveras friend and comrade in the
Communist Party, served as director of the New Workers School. The muralist decided to use the money
paid by Rockefeller to paint a 21-panel mural entitled Portrait of America. In them, he repeated Lenins
face and added other communist heroes.
Rockefellers ban Lenin in RCA mural and dismiss Rivera, The New York Times, May 10, 1933
El Arte de Diego Rivera y la causa del proletariado, El Universal, May 15 1933.
Irene Herner de Larrea compiled more than a hundred articles mentioning the matter. See Irene Herner de
Larrea, Diego Riveras Mural at the Rockefeller Center, Mexico, Edicupes, 1990.
The event also had repercussions on Riveras projects. On May 11 he was notified of the cancellation of a
commission to paint a mural at the Chicago Worlds Fair entitled Century of Progress.
For an analysis of this proposal, see Cathleen M. Paquette, op. cit., pp. 107 and ss. On December 15, 1933,
John R. Todd wrote to Nelson Rockefeller saying he had no objections to moving the mural provided the
cost was covered by the museum, without serious damage and without interfering with the elevator system.
He also stressed the need to manage the information to prompt the appropriate response from the public.
Business interests / 2 OMR, Series C-Business Series, Box 94, 706, Rockefeller Family Archives.
Cfr. Laurance P. Hurlburt, op.cit., pp. 170 y ss.
Rockefeller Center / 393 / 1934. Rockefeller Center Archives.
Lucienne Bloch to Frida Kahlo, February 15, 1934, DRFKA Jos Mara Sert replaced the mural with a
canvas painting on the theme American progress or Mans conquests.
Oscar Leblanc, Diego Rivera y Rockefeller: asesinato de una obra artstica: el famoso fresco borrado es
conocido ya en todo el mundo, El Universal, February 15, 1934, pp. 1 and 7.
The painters original is the draft of a text that circulated in various media, like the World Telegram, the
Herald Tribune and the New York Times, to name but a few.

Man at The Crossroads

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Man at The Crossroads

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Man at the Crossroads:

Diego Rivera and his mural at Rockefeller Center1

public buildings in Mexico.12 Mexican muralism was considered an original and

decorate Rockefeller Center.26 The planning included a number of documents detailing

29 Diego Rivera, The Stormy Petrel, op. cit., p. 26.

image in Mexican murals of the post-revolutionary period.33 In Riveras preparatory

). Rivera introduced the racial component in both compositions by adding people

65 Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, op. cit., p. 27.

68 Hugh Robertson to Diego Rivera, May 9, 1933, DRFKA.

The construction firm made the following statement:

74 Diego Rivera, Portrait of America, op. cit., p. 26.

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