Diego Rivera Controversy

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Art Controversy: In the Eyes of the Law Nearly 80 years ago, an American capitalist, Nelson Rockefeller, commissioned Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, to create Man at the Crossroads. When the artist’s strong political view spontaneously appears in the fresco, controversy followed. This mural’s demise is a case of how art, history, and politics don’t mix as well as paint and water: this incident ultimately ends in a verdict of how ownership overpowered artistic freedom. As Rivera points out, the question is, “If someone buys the Sistine Chapel, does he have, you know, the authority to destroy it?”(qtd. in Keyes) All through Diego Rivera’s life, the middle and working classes of Mexico primed his motif of his artistic voice. As trained artist, Rivera …show more content…
1 Rivera, Diego. Slavery in the Sugar Mill. 1929-1930. Fresco. Palacio de Cortes, Cuernavac, Mexico. New York Historical Society Education Division, 2011 Fig. 2. Rivera, Diego. The Flower Carrier. Oil and Tempera on Masonite. 1935. San Francisco Modern Museum of Art,2014. SFMMOA Collection: Diego Rivera. Problems of the less fortunate were not only present in Mexico: Where ever Rivera studied, he was a witness to the difficulties that unordinary people are subject to. In 1907-1921, Rivera studied abroad in Europe. While in Europe, Rivera was greatly fascinated with the similarity of the Mexican revolution of 1910 and the Russian revolution of 1917. For example, both countries’ laboring classes faced the same problems: corrupt, inflexible, and violent dictatorship in the government and economies. The powers of these revolutionary voices were which lead him to join the Communist Party of Mexico. At first, Rivera agreed with parts of the revolutionary movement. For example, abolition of child labor and the breaking of the capitalist’s hold on the industrial working class. However, Rivera was dismissed for an unknown reason, but still was empathetic towards working class’s revolution.

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