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Diego Rivera's Man at the Crossroads

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ART AND IMAGES IN PSYCHIATRY SECTION EDITOR: JAMES C. HARRIS, MD Diego Rivera’s Man at the Crossroads We acted very busy, aware detectives were all over the place...Ilifted my Leica [camera] to my eyes, centering on the Lenin head. I was satisfied that at least a photo would be good....[Di- ego] calls out...“Stop work! I’ve been ordered to stop because of Lenin.” I began to cry. Lucienne Bloch, 19861 Propaganda has no place in art. Art should rise above politics and the realities of one little epoch. Art is an escape from reality. I do not agree with Mr Rivera that every art must have a political viewpoint. Henri Matisse, New York Herald Tribune, May 24, 19342(p257) N WEDNESDAY,MAY 10, graph) using her handheld Leica (cover, When he was informed about the 1933, Diego Rivera made thumbnail). Lenin portrait, Nelson Rockefeller sent front-page news in the Lucienne Bloch’s photographs are the a diplomatic letter to Rivera: NewYorkTimes:“ROCKE- only record of the Rivera RCA building Viewing the progress of your thrilling mu- OFELLERS BAN LENIN IN RCA MURAL mural. Her close-up photograph ap- ral, I noticed that in the most recent portion AND DISMISS RIVERA.” The night be- peared in the New York papers show- of the painting you had included a portrait fore, Rivera (1886-1957) was ordered to ing Lenin, the leader of the proletariat, of Lenin. This piece is beautifully painted, but stop painting his commissioned mural, symbolically clasping the hands of a triad it seems to me that his portrait appearing in Man at the Crossroads (epigraph), in the representing the soldier, the worker, and this mural might very easily offend a great main entrance lobby of the Radio Cor- the farmer (depicted as African Ameri- manypeople....AsmuchasIdislike to do poration of America (RCA) building in can). These were the allies of interna- so, I am afraid we must ask you to substitute Rockefeller Center. He was paid the tional socialism. Rivera wrote: the face of some unknown man where Lenin’s head now appears.4 $14 000 remainder of his $21 000 fee and dismissed. Within an hour, the mural Man, represented by these three figures, looks Rivera waffled about changing the mu- was covered over by new canvas pan- with uncertainty but with hope towards a fu- ral, but his assistants, including Bloch, said ture, more complete balance between the els. Earlier that week, Rivera sought per- Technical and Ethical development of Man- they would quit if he backed down. Rivera mission for a professional photograph to kind necessary to a New, more Humane and offered to compromise by replacing the be taken of his work in progress. Per- Logical Order.3(p354-376) card-playing women with a set of Ameri- mission was denied. Sensing trouble, canheroesandheroines:AbrahamLincoln, Rivera’s wife, Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Lenin wears a mustache and chin beard, Nat Turner, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In alerted Rivera’s assistant, Lucienne his expression is serious, and his brow the end, the architect and the board of the Bloch (1909-1999). A diversion was cre- furrowed as he joins his right hand in Todd Engineering Corporation, managers ated to allow time for Bloch, the daugh- solidarity with the three. He is wearing of the Rockefeller Center development,5 ter of noted conductor Ernest Bloch and a workman’s shirt with large buttons and supported by John D. Rockefeller Jr, made a talented photographer, to quickly take no necktie. A mother and child face him thedecisionthatLeninmustgo;Riverahad photos of the large mural and close- on the left and a man and boy on the notunderstoodtheyhadthefinalsay.5,6 The ups of the area showing Lenin (epi- right. RockefellerCenterwasessentiallyaprivate/ Figure 1. Man, Controller of the Universe, 1934. ARCH GEN PSYCHIATRY/ VOL 69 (NO. 4), APR 2012 WWW.ARCHGENPSYCHIATRY.COM 337 ©2012 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ on 09/27/2021 public works project in the midst of genesis ending with a fetus growing in the a factory at lunchtime listen to these pro- Depression-eraNewYork.Itsfinanciersand uterus. Just above, the cycle is completed letarian leaders. tenants could not be offended or the proj- with a newborn baby breastfeeding. Lenin The left panel represents capitalism. A ect would collapse. (Figure 2), now wearing a coat, tie, and larger-than-life Jupiter hovers over the Despite worldwide attention to Rive- vest,enjoinsthesoldier(nowclearlywhite), scene. A bolt of lightning (uncontrollable ra’s plight, 9 months later in February theworker,andtheAfricanAmericanman. nature) strikes off Jupiter’s hands and is 1934, after Nelson Rockefeller’s negotia- The nursing baby and a young child, held transformed into scientifically controlled tions to move the mural to the Museum up by his teacher, illustrate a new genera- electricitytocureillness,providelight,and of Modern Art failed, a demolition crew tion born under socialism. The child unitementhroughradioandtelevision.Sci- came in after midnight and pulverized the reaches out to Lenin. To the right, female ence has overcome false gods. Will religion mural. The next morning, Lucienne Bloch gymnasts represent the purity of the new become ineffective and lose meaning with and others found nothing but plaster frag- generation. At the top right above them, the advent of science? The lower part of ments and dust. Rivera, encouraged by his Rivera depicts a May Day parade in Red the panel represents the science of evolu- assistant Ben Shahn, had written, “rather Square. Workers are marching and sing- tion that may help end superstition. A qui- than mutilate the conception, I should ing “The International.” They enjoy their etly attentive audience, apparently of prefer the physical destruction of the con- rights in a socialist society and march with middle-class academics, is gathered for a ception in its entirety.”6 But he never ex- the Kremlin and Lenin’s tomb in the back- presentation by Charles Darwin, whose pected the mural would be destroyed. ground. This is in contrast to the capital- various animal specimens interact on the The destruction of the RCA build- istsidethatshowstheweaponsofwar:fixed floor with a naked human baby. Above ing mural did not end Rivera’s dream. bayonets and warplanes. Soldiers wear gas them, mounted police who use batons to On his return to Mexico, he found a new masks, a grim reminder of the mustard gas beat working-class protesters break the site for the mural in the Palacio de Bel- attacks in the First World War. quiet. Perhaps this is an allusion to the So- las Artes in Mexico City. In December cial Darwinist philosophy used to rational- 1934, the mural Man at the Crossroads ize poverty that leaves the worker behind. was recreated, but the name was changed Darwin’s evolutionary theory is contrasted to Man, Controller of the Universe4,7; the in this panel with the socialist evolution basic content was the same (Figure 1). of humanity in the communist world. There are 3 panels. The left panel rep- When interviewed in New York about resented Rivera’s negative views of capi- Rivera in 1934, Henri Matisse (epigraph) talism, and the panel on the right his insisted that art was not propaganda. Ri- views about a glorious socialism. The vera disagreed, and following the dictates center panel shows a controller of the of socialist realism,8 he depicted the noble universe. A steel worker manipulates a leader (Lenin), the happy and productive time machine. His right hand manipu- people, and the new philosophy and con- lates a lever, and the fingers of his left trasted it with his views of capitalism with hand are placed on a panel with but- the aim of showing communism’s supe- tons. The worker has power over the riority. He succeeded in producing art that forces of nature. His gaze reflects both is imaginative and technically well done, uncertainty and hope. An arm is shown but its message is propaganda. Its bias pre- rising from the ground before him, hold- sents a false choice for man at the cross- ing in its hand a transparent globe de- roads. Still, Matisse’s statement that art is picting the dynamic forces of chemis- an escape from reality is too narrow a defi- try and biology. Atoms are shown Figure 2. Lenin detail from Man, Controller of nition.Artcanbefarmorethanpropaganda recombining, and a cell in mitosis di- the Universe. or an escape from reality. Instead, when vides. An ellipse stretches out from the The side panels amplify these differ- most inspiring, art may vivify the deepest center to the right into the socialist side ences between capitalism and social- undercurrents of reality and allow the of the mural. It shows the advances of ism.4 A decapitated Caesar looms large in viewer to feel more grounded and alive. the telescope: bodies in space, constel- the far right socialist panel. The statue lations, and nebulae. It is balanced by an may symbolize the end of Western tyr- James C. Harris, MD ellipse that stretches to the left show- anny. Caesar wears a swastika carved in ing what a microscope can reveal. In- REFERENCES fectious microbes that cause plague and marble around his waist, representing the social diseases are shown—gonococci (in Nazi fascists. (Adolf Hitler came to power a leukocyte) and syphilitic spirochetes. as chancellor of Germany in January 1. Bloch L. On location with Diego Rivera. Art Am. 1986; 1933.) The right panel reflects the joy of 74:102-122. Beneath this ellipse, debauched women 2. De Larrea IH. Diego Rivera’s Mural at the Rocke- play cards adjacent to a caricature of the socialist workers.
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