Diego Rivera Man At The Crossroads Analysis

In 1932, famous Mexican artist Diego Rivera, was commissioned to paint a mural for the Rockefeller center in Manhattan, New York. The mural’s name was Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future. While painting Rivera included a power Mexican communist and Russian revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin. Lenin was not in the sketch that Nelson Rockefeller had originally approved. The face of Lenin created controversy in the United States and upset some citizens. When Rockefeller asked for Lenin’s face to be replaced with Abraham Lincoln’s face, but Diego Rivera refused. Rivera was paid in full for the work he had not finished and the painting was covered and scheduled for demolition. Rivera later re-created a
Starting at the center there is a man and industrial looking technology, around him is what looks like the shape of a neutron. Neutrons are the basic components of all things, in each part of the neutron shape are things that the neutrons make up. The cell biology, anatomy of a person, the moon, and even bigger the universe. Below that are plants that appear to be growing. The man in the center is controlling technology that is around the neutron shape. This represents that man is the controller of everything. Then there are two sides of the mural that have different themes. On the left side, it represent capitalism and the destruction of the First World War You can see the use of technology of machine guns, airplanes, and poison gas. This brings it back to the center theme because man is the controller, but also has the power to create mass destruction. On the right side, it represents the glories of the Russian Revolution. On that side there is a decapitated sculpture, I feel this represents the postmodernism movement because Rivera is critiquing the classical and traditional history of