Detroit Industry Murals

Detroit Industry, North Wall, 1932-33. Detroit Institute of Arts.

Detroit Industry, South Wall, 1932-33. Detroit Institute of Arts.

Detroit Industry Murals are the frescoes by Mexican artist Diego Rivera. It is a series of twenty-seven panels depicting industry at the Ford Motor Company. Together they surround the Rivera Court in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Painted between 1932 and 1933, it was considered by Rivera himself to be his most successful work.^[1]

The two main panel on the North and South walls depict laborers working at Ford Motor Company's River Rouge Plant. Other panels depict other advances made in fields of science, such as medicine and new technology. The entire mural as a whole encompasses the idea that all actions and ideas are one.

Notoriety

Even before the murals were made, there had been controversy surrounding Rivera's Marxist philosophy. Critics viewed them as Marxist propaganda. When the murals were completed, the Detroit Institute for the Arts invited various clergymen to comment. Catholic and Episcopalian clergy condemned the murals for supposed "blasphemy." The Detroit News protested that they were "vulgar" and "unamerican." As a result of the controversy, 10,000 people visited the museum on a single Sunday, and the budget for it was eventually raised.

One panel on the North wall displays a Christ-like child figure with what appears to be a halo over its head. Flanking it on its right side are a horse (instead of the donkey of Christian tradition) and an ox on its left. It stands atop a sheep, also part of traditional Nativity scenes and a reference to Christ as the Agnus Dei or "Lamb of God". A doctor (Joseph) and a nurse (Mary) are giving the child a vaccination. Three scientists to the rear of the panel are working on a lab experiment. This is believed to be a parody of the birth of Christ, with the scientists as the Three Wise Men. This panel so offended members of the religious community that they demanded it be destroyed, but it was saved due to support from commissioner Edsel Ford and the director of the DIA.^[2]

Rivera depicts the workers as in harmony with their machines and highly productive. This view reflects both Karl Marx's begrudging admiration for the high productivity of capitalism and the wish of Edsel Ford, who funded the project, to have the Ford motor plant depicted in a favorable light. Rivera depicted byproducts from the ovens being made into fertilizer and Henry Ford leading a trade-school engineering class.

References

1. ^ The Detroit Institute of Arts.[1] "Detroit Industry". Retrieved on March 24, 2008. "The Detroit Industry fresco cycle in Rivera Court is the finest example of Mexican muralist work in the United States; Rivera considered it the most successful work of his career.zz"
2. ^ University of Michigan An Analysis of Diego Rivera's Exhibitions in the United States.

External links

• A high resolution panoramic view of the murals can be seen at Rivera Court by Synthescape.
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103337403