Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals [Hardcover]

Linda Bank Downs (Author), Diego Rivera (Painter), Frida Kahlo (Painter)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 1999

A beautifully illustrated in-depth study of the most important North American work by the best-known Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera.

Early in the Depression, Diego Rivera was commissioned by Edsel Ford to create a series of murals in the gallery of the Detroit Institute of Arts, giant frescos whose theme would be America's industrial might. This volume studies the astonishing results and gives us a remarkably close look at Diego and his wife, Frida Kahlo.

Rivera's Detroit Industry murals are one of this country's greatest treasures. In addition to providing full coverage and analysis of the murals, this volume includes chapters on the murals' planning and antecedents, Rivera's working methods (which can be read as a primer on frescos), Diego and Frida's lives for their nine months in Detroit, and the public's dramatic response to the strong socialist/communist themes in the works.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Linda Bank Downs is an expert on Diego Rivera and head of education at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (December 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393045293
• ISBN-13: 978-0393045291
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Viva Rivera, Viva Detroit!, November 25, 2000

By 

Caroline C. Schaefer (The Industrial Midwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals (Hardcover)

For anyone who has ever been fascinated with Diego Rivera and his works, this is a wonderfully detailed guide to the Detroit Industry Murals. Readible either from cover-to-cover or in chapters, this book is filled throughout with photos, historic background, interviews and amazingly interesting details to all that went into the Detroit Industry Murals. Starting with other Rivera murals located across the United States, Downs leads into the situation of Henry Ford wanting a depiction of Detroit and the auto industry for a neglected garden gallery. A chapter details the fresco process used by Rivera during this immense project, and is skippable for those not interested in art technique. Another chapter details how Rivera and his wife, artist Fridah Kahlo, spend their time in the Motor City. The especially amazing introduction tells the story of how in 1979 Detroit Institute of Art staff found in a dusty closet the original "cartoons" (full size pencil sketches) that Diego Rivera had made during the planning and layout of the murals. Downs ends the book with reactions to the finished project, which ranged from churches outrage to extreme pride for the city's auto workers, which the work most positively depicted. Because of the artist's political convictions (Mexican communist) the murals were almost destroyed during the Cold War and had to be protected under armed guard. Detroit is the last place you would expect to find the masterpiece of the Mexican muralist movement's greatest son. Just like it's topic, this book is an amazing and unexpected masterpiece.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detroit: Then and Now, May 5, 2009

By 

Janet Calle "Janet Calle" (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diego Rivera: The Detroit Industry Murals (Hardcover)

In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Diego Rivera arrived in Detroit, where, at the behest of Henry Ford, he began murals celebrating the American worker on the walls of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Completed in 1933, the piece depicted industrial life in the United States, concentrating on the car plant workers of Detroit. Though the fresco was the focus of much controversy, Edsel Ford, Henry's son, defended the work and it remains today Rivera's most significant painting in The United States. Rivera provided the first inspiration for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's WPA program. Of the hundreds of American artists who would find work through the WPA , many continued on to address political concerns that had first been publicly presented by Rivera. Both his original painting style and the force of his ideas remain major influences on American painting. At this critical time in the auto industry, Rivera's murals dramatically detail the beginning.