Rivera , Kahlo and Rouge Plant

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Henry Ford, left, discussed expansion plans at the Rouge complex with John.
F. Wandersee, a Ford metal specialist, and son Edsel in 1938. 


      . "In revealing the beauty of factory architecture, Sheeler had become
the Raphael of the Fords. Who is it that will be the Giotto of the UAW?"
asked a writer in 1949. The answer to that question was Mexican muralist
Diego Rivera, who was brought to Detroit by Edsel Ford and the Detroit
Institute of Arts. 
      When the director of the Detroit Institute of Arts, William R.
Valentiner, approached him about inviting Rivera to paint the walls in the
museum's Garden Court, an enthusiastic Edsel also promised to pay for the
project. In his Detroit frescoes, Rivera focused on the relationship between
man and machine. 
 This photo of molten steel being poured for sampling took third prize in a
Graflex Photo contest in 1956. The photo was taken by Richard De Longe, a
Ford cameraman. 


      According to a Detroit Institute of Arts catalog of an exhibit
honoring the 75th anniversity of Ford, which showcased Rivera and Sheeler's
artwork of the Rouge plant, Valentiner said, "Edsel Ford was the only person
in Detroit industry who had any interest in modern art. ... Diegeo Rivera
and Edsel Ford understood each other very well ... Diego confessed to me
that Edsel had none of the characteristics of an exploiting capitalist, that
he had the simplicity and directness of a workman in his own factories and
was like one of the best of them." 
      Rivera spent several weeks studying Detroit auto plants, looking for
inspiration. A devout Marxist, he visited the neighborhoods of workmen and
the factories, especially the Rouge plant. He saw Detroit, he said, as an
expression of the steel that goes into automobiles and skyscrapers. 
 Diego Rivera works on a mural at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1932. 


      He also picked up on the diversity of the workers in a heavily ethnic
city. He not only sought to glorify industry, but to glorify the dignity of
the workers. 
      Rivera explained the symbolism in his murals: 
      "The yellow race represents the sand, because it is most numerous," he
said. "And the red race, the first in this country, is like the iron ore,
the first thing necessary for the steel. 

A section of the Rivera murals on the south wall of the DIA's Garden Court. 

      "The black race is like coal, because it has a great native esthetic
sense, a real flame of feeling and beauty in its ancient sculpture, its
native rhythm and music. So its esthetic sense is like the fire, and its
labor furnishes the hardness which the carbon in the coal gives to steel. 
      "The white race is like the lime, not only because it is white, but
because lime is the organizing agent in the making of steel. It binds
together the other elements and so you see the white race as the great
organizer of the world." 
      Despite Rivera's romanticized explanation, there was much opposition
to the work. Marygrove College president Dr. George H. Derry proclaimed the
sentiments of many: 
      "Senor Rivera has perpetrated a heartless hoax on his capitalist
employer, Edsel Ford. Rivera was engaged to interpret Detroit; he has
foisted on Mr. Ford and the museum a Communist manifesto." 
      Nevertheless, Rivera's industrial murals at the Detroit Institute of
Arts influenced a generation of artists who found work in President Franklin
Roosevelt's WPA program and remain among the most important examples of 20th
century public art. 
 

 The murals glorified the worker. 



 A Charles Sheeler photo at the Rouge complex. 


 Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo at the Rouge complex in 1932. 


(This story was compiled using clip and photo files of the Detroit News.) 

See pictures:
http://www.detnews.com/history/rouge/rouge.htm



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