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Detroit Industry Murals Diego Rivera was a prominent Mexican artist that is known for painting fresco murals.

Detroit Institute of Art

The Detroit Institute of Art was established in 1885, and is home to a prestigious collection of sculptures and paintings. From 1924-1945 Wilhelm Valentiner, a German art historian and art critic was the director of the DIA, and Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company was a generous patron of the Detroit arts commission.

Commission

In 1932 Wilhelm Valentiner commissioned Diego Rivera for an ambitious project. The plan for the project was to have Diego Rivera paint 27 fresco murals in the Detroit Institute of Art. They also wanted Rivera to incorporate the industry of Detroit as a whole, and not just the automobile industry. Rivera was perfect for the job. Before accepting Valentiers proposal Rivera had just completed a mural at the California School of Fine Arts, now called the San Francisco Art Institute. The mural that he created there clearly displayed his painterly ability as well as his interest towards the modern industrial culture in the United States. In the agreement for the commission, the DIA was expected to pay all expenses towards materials while Rivera was expected to pay for his own assistance. At the time materials were incredibly expensive and the agreement that the DIA and Rivera settled on was considered a great deal. Edsel Ford contributions played a critical role in making the deal possible. He donated 20,000 dollars towards the ambitious project.

North and South walls

From the 27 murals that Rivera painted at the Detroit Institute of Art, the two largest murals are located on the north and south walls. The murals depict the workers at the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn Michigan. During the time Detroit was an advanced industrial complex, and was home to the largest manufacturing industry of the world. In 1927, the Ford Motor Company was introducing advanced technological improvements for their assembly line, one of which was the revolutionary automated car assembly line. Another revolutionary quality of the industry in Detroit was their ability to manufacture every single component for their motor car. Detroit had factories within factories that produced everything from steel, electric power, and even cement. Although, Detroit was popular for their masterful mass production of the motor can, they also manufactured ships, tractors, and airplanes, and if that is not impressive enough, Detroit also owned all of the railroads for shipping. This impressive integrated industrial manufacturing center is what Diego Rivera diligently pursued to capture in his masterful work at the Detroit Institute of Art that would later be known as the “Detroit Industry Murals”.

When Rivera started the project he immediately began researching the facilities at the Ford River Rouge Complex. He spent three months touring all of the plants, and prepared hundreds of sketches and concepts for the mural. He also had his own photographer that was assigned to him as aid for Rivera’s research in finding visual reference material. The photographers name was W.J. Stettler, and was also the official photographer for the River Rouge plant. Rivera was truly amazed by the perfect examples of technology and modernity that was present in Detroit’s plants. Although, Rivera was obviously intrigued with the industry that revolved around the motor car, he also expressed an interest in the pharmaceutical industry. He even spent some time at the Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical plant in Detroit to conduct even more research for his commission at the DIA.

Diego Rivera managed to complete the monumental commission in a very short amount of time. He only spent eight months to complete the work. In order for him to have completed the work in such a short amount of time, Rivera along with his assistants had a exhausting work schedule, and would work fifteen hour days often. It is also known that they would often have no brakes between work, causing Rivera to loose 100lbs of weight. Rivera also had a bad reputation with his assistants in that he would not pay them very well, and at one point his assistants actually protested for better wages.

At the time Rivera’s assistants were not the only workers protesting. Rivera started working on the mural in 1932 which overlapped the Great Depression. In Detroit one out of four laborers were unemployed, and at the time the Ford Motor Company was experiencing political/social unrest with their workers. There was even an event were 6,000 workers were on strike, but was sabotaged and ended in five deaths and wounding many others. Considering Rivera’s reputation as a revolutionary artist, it is apparent that Rivera was most likely inspired by the charged atmosphere of protest against one of the worlds most powerful industrial cities.

The DIA inner courtyard is ruled by two gigantic murals located on the north and south walls. These two murals are the climax to the narrative that Rivera depicted in his 27 panel mural. The north wall puts the worker at center and depicts the manufacturing process of Fords famous 1932 V8 engine. The mural also visually composes the relationship between man and the machine as the main theme of the mural. In an age of mechanical reproduction, the boundary between man and the machine was often questioned. While machine was imitating the abilities of man, and man being forced to operate in a machine like manner often sparked concerns regarding ethical rights for the working class majority. Other qualities that Rivera incorporated into the north wall that commented on mechanical reproduction were: blasting furnaces that are making iron ore, foundries that are making molds for parts, conveyor belts carrying the cast parts, machining operations and finally inspections. Rivera depicted the entire manufacturing process on the large north side mural. He also depicts the chemical industry on the right and left side of the northern wall. The imagery consists of a juxtaposition of scientists that are producing poison gas for warfare and scientists that are producing vaccines for medical purposes.

On the opposite side of the north wall Rivera depicts the manufacturing process of the exterior parts to the motor car. In this mural Rivera focuses on technology as an important quality of the future. He then allegorizes this concept through one of the huge parts pressing machines that is depicted in the mural. The machine is meant to symbolize the story of the Aztec goddess Coatlicue. In Aztec mythology Coatlicue was the mother of the gods, and gave birth to the moon, stars, and Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war. The story of Coatlicue was important to the Aztecs and summarized the complexity of their culture and religious beliefs. In comparison to the aztec story, technology had become what the modern world found to be important culturally, and at times supported and defended technology as passionately as a religion.

East and West walls

The east wall depicts fertility or the origins of life through the depiction of two female figures who are hugging symbols of harvest. Some of these symbols include; vegetables, wheat, and fruit. Underneath the two female figures is a wide horizontal panel that depicts a baby fetus that is sprouting from a plant. Rivera used these symbols of fertility as a reference towards life, human aspirations, intelligence, and art. The fetus in particular also represented a martyr for the unborn children who where victims of human choice.

The west wall depicts modern life through the development of aviation, as well as the development of weapons for war. Rivera also depicts a duality between peace and war through the depiction of civilian pilots and warriors who have gas masks. On the horizontal panel that is located directly above the doorway, he makes reference towards war and peace through the depiction of a human head that is half dead and half alive, some correlate this symbolism toward the difference between civilization and barbarism. In the center of the two halves you can also see a star, some believe that it may possibly be a hidden reference towards Communism.

Background

After the Mexican Revolution of 1910 artist began expressing nationalistic ideas in their work along with a combination of revolutionary concepts, and during the 1920’s and 1930’s Mexican painting reached a high point in interest. During this time Diego Rivera became involved in the Mexican muralism movement with other artists such as, Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Some of Rivera’s best murals are in the National Palace (Mexico) and the National Agricultural School in Chicingo, near Mexico City. Rivera painted several significant works in the United States between 1930 and 1940, and perhaps his finest surviving U.S. work is the Detroit Industry Murals at the Detroit institute of Art Rivera was famous for murals that portrayed Mexican culture and history. He was also a controversial figure for his radical political and religious beliefs. Rivera’s most popular works are largely the murals that exhibit his characteristic style of large simplified figures painted with bold earth tone colors.

Automobile Industry

The United States main center for the automobile industry was developed by a group of Detroit businessmen during the early 1900's. These businessmen included Henry Ford, John Dodge, Horace Dodge, and Ransom E. Olds. The automobile industry was able to grow rapidly due to the cities massive supply in labor. Land and lake passages also made it convenient and inexpensive to transport raw materials to the city. The jobs that were created through the automobile industry created an influx in population. Between 1900 and 1910, the cities population doubled from approximately 200,000 to 400,000, and by 1930 the population reached over 1 1/2 million.

During the Great Depression of the 1930’s Detroit suffered widespread unemployment, and the unemployment rate grew to 25%. In 1935, workers in the automobile industry organized the United Automobile Workers union (UAW), and in December 1936 the union went on strike at the Fisher Body and Chevrolet plant in Flint Michigan. The workers demanded an industry in which only union members could be hired. The union also demanded a discussion between the differences in company and union representatives. The Fisher and Chevrolet plant rejected the demands made by the UAW union, but eventually lost and granted the union collective bargaining rights on February 11, 1937. The union also signed a contract with Ford Motor Company in 1941, making the UAW union the legitimate representative of the automobile industries workers throughout the United States.

The United Automobile Workers (UAW) is one of the largest labor unions of the United States, and has more than 1,400 local unions throughout the United States. The UAW’s members are collected primarily from workers that are employed in a variety of manufacturing jobs such as, aircraft, aerospace products, agricultural equipment, electronics, household appliances, or in metalworking trades. The UAW also represents workers in banking and insurance businesses, hospitals, legal services, local government and universities.