Rockefeller Center's murals & the commie Rockefellers: I Paint What I See

"What do you paint when you paint a wall?"
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson.





"Do you paint just anything there at all?
"Will there be any doves or a tree in fall?
"Or a hunting scene like an English hall?"

"I paint what I see," said Rivera...




"Whose is that head I see on my wall?"
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson.
"Is it anyone's head whom we know, at all?
"A Rensselaer, or a Saltonstall?
"Is it Franklin D.? Is it Mordaunt Hall?
"Or is it the head of a Russian?"

"I paint what I think," said Rivera.


"I paint what I paint, I paint what I see,
"I paint what I think," said Rivera,
"And the thing that is dearest in life to me
"In a bourgeois hall is Ingegrity;

"However,...

"I'll take out a couple of people drinkin'
"And put in a picture of Abraham Lincoln,
"I could even give you McCormick's reaper
"And still not make my art much cheaper.
"But the head of Lenin has got to stay
"Or my friends will give me the bird today
"The bird, the bird, forever."


"It's not good taste in a man like me,"
Said John D.'s grandson Nelson,
"To question an artist's integrity
"Or mention a practical thing like a fee,
"But I know what I like to a large degree
"Though art I hate to hamper;
"For twenty-one thousand conservative bucks
"You painted a radical. I say shucks,
"I never could rent the offices--
"The capitalistic offices.




"For this, as you know, is a public hall
"And people want doves or a tree in fall,
"And though your art I dislike to hamper,
"I owe a LITTLE to God and Gramper,
"And after all,
"It's MY WALL..."


"We'll see if it is," said Rivera.


-- by E.B. White


(Find Lenin's head)



http://hubpages.com/hub/I_PAINT_WHAT_I_SEE__A_Ballad_of_Artistic_Integrity_by_E_B_White

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/rodriguez/rivera/right.html



Different mural, same schtick:

Glenn Beck: Some Rockefeller Was Some Form of Enemy

Mark Howard of News Corpse (9/3/09) has a look at a September 2 Fox News "sermon" in which Glenn Beck "has used his divine vision to reveal the evidence of Satan's secret seeds" in the form of "paintings and sculptures and other works by history’s subversives--the artists!"

As Beck "associates the evil artists with their patron, Rockefeller," Howard notes that, "unfortunately, he doesn't specify which one. In fact, he jumps around to several of them without making any distinction":


Beck begins his unveiling with a denouncement of a relief at the entrance to Rockefeller Center. The work shows two men on either side of the doors. Beck tells us that one is holding a hammer, and the other a sickle. Ergo communism! It's right there in plain sight. Except that the first man is actually holding a shovel, according to the historians curating the Center's artwork. The figures were meant to represent the strength of America's industry and agriculture, which I'm sure Beck views as treasonous.

http://www.fair.org/blog/#post-12779

The Cradle Will Rock?

Of course you did!

Thanks for the poem!

I did a considerable amount of research yesterday on the opinion of Beck by the members of Stormfront and other white supremacists' disussion boards and found they were decidedly against him for his support of Israel and Jews. This might be a shift in Beck's strategy to appeal to all the racists.

I hope I can make this clear. The other day, my curiosity was piqued to investigate the attitude of Stormfronters towards Beck. I found that, currently, on most of the white supremacists discussion boards there is some grudging praise for Beck for his anti-immigration and anti-Obama stances. As we know, Beck engages in dog-whistle racism (though most times like a bull in a china shop)but overall, the supremacists really really do not like Beck because of his support for Jews and Israel. Also, on the supremacists sites there's a lot of discussion that the Rockefellers are "secret" Jews (and all the despicable hatred that goes with that accusation). I know I'm probably seeing things that aren't there but WTH is up with Beck's out of the blue rant about Rockefeller being the enemy? Is he trying to extend a hand to the skin heads?

your speculation about beck could be correct, though.

Vladi's head is under the cosmic wing.



Visit Detroit Institute of Arts and check out what it was Rockefeller painted over.

Can you see Henry Ford's head?

Thank you for a great post and thread, Hannah Bell.

The DIA's got a courtyard where visitors are surrounded encased by the murals. Henry's there, somewhere.



Detroit's Collapse: the Untold Story -- How the Press Helped Destroy the Auto Industry.

Detroit and Michigan have a great history, filled with great people.

Come to town, I'll show them to you

It was 1932 or so and Edsel Ford wanted to give back to the community and hired Diego Rivera. The artist spent time at the Ford Rouge Plant, where 70,000 men and women worked, and put what he learned and saw into his amazing murals. The fresco technique requires fast work, so Rivera put together a team that included many young Detroit artists.

My wife and I were fortunate to have been given a docent tour of the installation by one of those artists about 10 years ago. He described Rivera as a rapscallion who liked the ladies, including the docent's wife. He said Rivera was driven by a desire to bring social justice to the world and used his art toward that end. The docent, a very funny and kind man, passed away a few years ago.



NPR tells the story well:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103337403


The DIA's online resources:

http://www.dia.org/education/rivera/infoidx.htm

Standing in the middle of all the workers?

Ford's director of security, strike breaker extraordinaire and all-around rival to Ford's good-natured son, Edsel. A visionary and humanitarian, what a different world this would be had Edsel lived to old age.