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This reminds me of a historical incident ... Twitter thread upcoming, I'll try not to be long-winded
In 1932, John D. Rockefeller Jr. commissioned a mural to adorn the most visible wall in Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller normally had conservative taste in art - eg Colonial Williamsburg - but this one time he did something bold. He hired the great Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera
The Rockefeller family was aware of Rivera's communist politics. To avert trouble, they provided meticulous instructions about what was required, a 3 pp. contract stipulating the Depression-appropriate theme: Man at the crossroads, looking to the future with purpose & confidence.
Rivera provided a sketch of the mural, Rockefellers accepted. Rivera signed for a big fee. Then ... trouble. Rivera's fellow Communists mocked and derided him for accepting Rockefeller money and participating in their capitalist agit-prop. Irked, Rivera acted out ...
He painted a full-length portrait of Vladimir Lenin into the mural, just to the left of the central figure of the Worker Hero Looking to the Future with Purpose and Confidence - as if Lenin provided inspiration for that future.
It's 1933! The Leninist government the Soviet Union has starved millions of Ukrainians to death. Communist factions are conspiring to seize power all over the troubled capitalist world. So, now it's the Rockefellers who are irked. They demand Rivera paint out Lenin.
Rivera refuses. Artist and patron go eyeball to eyeball. The Rockefellers eventually chisel the mural off their wall. The Mexican Cultural Incident in Washington hosted a fantastic exhibition on all this in 2014, with drawings and photos of the mural. instituteofmexicodc.org/wailing.php
People still argue over who was more to blame, Rivera or the Rockefellers. But nobody doubts that the demolition was an act of vandalism. It's amazing that a "progressive" school board would now propose to re-enact this destruction. nytimes.com/2019/06/28/opi…
A reminder that today's "progressives" are yesterday's philistines and tomorrow's reactionaries.
One funny PS. The Rockefeller-Rivera encounter is detailed in the memoirs of Rivera's close friend, the briliant historian Bertram Wolfe amazon.com/Life-Centuries… Wolfe at the time was becoming disenchanted with communism. So when Rivera defiantly and defensively asked Wolfe ...
(I quote from memory, maybe not exact) "If the Rockefellers wanted a portrait of a Worker Hero, who else would they have expected other than Lenin?"
Wolfe mockingly replied to his Stalin-line friend: "I don't know Diego. Possibly Trotsky?"
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Wolfe mockingly replied to his Stalin-line friend: "I don't know Diego. Possibly Trotsky?"
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PPS Correction: Lenin in the mural stands to the *the worker-hero's left* - but to the viewer's right.
