Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art

This exhibition featured five frescos tackling events in Mexico’s history. However, Rivera created three additional works in tandem that ridiculed the inequality of the New York economy during its Great Depression. Not only this, Rivera was beginning preparations for the highly controversial Rockefeller mural commission that was to dramatically crumble two years later.
Now, “Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art” provides an impressive and in-depth exploration of the “Mexico” and “New York” murals, Rivera’s impactful travels to Italy and Russia (then USSR) as well as his relationship with the Rockefeller family.
Set against deep aqua blue walls, five relocated murals are supplemented by drawings, paintings, photographs, letters and even an artwork X-ray that provide a cohesive and trans-geographic insight into Rivera’s psyche and practice. The X-ray is of the mural Agrarian Leader Zapata (1931) revealing Rivera’s use of materials greatly influenced by his travels to Italy, and study of fresco painting. In fact, Rivera made a name reintroducing the fresco mural to modern art and architecture—a medium conducive for widespread social and political awareness and supported by state art programs implemented following the Mexican Revolution. The exhibition’s second focus is, therefore, on Rivera’s travels to Moscow, where he greatly impacted the infiltration of mural paintings as a political resource. A series of 45 watercolor and crayon drawings illustrate the 10th anniversary celebration of the Russian Revolution and samplings from Soviet life, highlighting Rivera’s strong communist affiliations and an ardent political motivation that underlies his work. This is complemented with a series depicting Mexico’s Revolution, inviting an ingenious juxtaposition of historical events. Rivera’s depiction of his homeland is understandably suffused with emotion, evident in the raw energy and violent anger of Indian Warrior.
In contrast, Rivera’s portrayals of New York are austere and geometric. Stating that he planned to depict “the rhythm of American workers”, Rivera’s 1932 mural Frozen Assets shows a cross section of the city in three distinct economic levels. A skyline of nine landmark skyscrapers beneath which are rows of sleeping laborers, and in the lowest depths a bank vault is attended by a wealthy patron—highlighting the disparity between capitalist driving forces and the mammoth unemployment rate amongst the city’s labor forces.
Ironically, the Rockefeller Center is the painting’s focal point. The exhibition comprehensively covers Rockefeller’s (in) famous commission of Man at the Crossroads from preliminary sketches to a letter informing Rivera of its disassembly in 1934. Photographs by Lucienne Bloch, Rivera’s assistant during the commission, document the original mural, and Rivera later uses these to recreate the mural in Mexico City, provocatively renaming the work Man Controller of the Universe. Unafraid and unapologetic, Diego Rivera: Murals for The Museum of Modern Art is refreshingly reflective, and manages to bridge Rivera’s art practice with his political and historical significance, giving an illustrious career meaningful global context.