The Magnificent Diego Rivera Murals at Detroit Institute of Arts
Inside the Detroit Arts of Institute (aka DIA), one can find the magnificent Diego Rivera Murals spanning the whole court from top to bottom, from side to side, and from corner to corner. You don’t need to be an artist nor an art freak to understand what the massive murals are all about. Diego Rivera’s work hides no symbolisms in tiny details but he painted it that even ordinary citizens can decipher what he was trying to convey.
At first, I was awed at its size and magnificence. It’s truly impressive and beyond awesome. As I went around the court, I got the sense of his art. I suddenly felt both the workers and the machines on the wall were painstakingly working and moving along with me. It didn’t take a while that I ultimately heard the noise that comes with the industry.
Diego Rivera’s murals are visually-stunning as they are visually-symbolic for a piece of art that expressively shows birth, progress, politics, and tragedies—all in the same space, but divided into twenty-seven panels.
Diego Rivera came to Detroit during the Great Depression in the country’s history.
At the very center of Detroit Institute of Arts, he created a tribute to industry and workers.
These murals reveal Diego Rivera’s fascination with industrial processes….
….and his critique of the political and social realities of capitalist enterprise.
He was a Marxist who believed that art shouldn’t be in the art galleries but outside for the people to see.
While his wife, the renowned Frida Kahlo, painted to survive…

… he painted for his people in Mexico.
The murals assert the benefits of industrial processes but warn of their destructive side effects.
The aviation industry produces planes for war as well as for travel.

4 Comments
Wow! These murals are magnificent, indeed.
I think there’s a scene in the movie, Frida, where Diego was doing this mural.
Johnson,
I’ve seen the movie but I couldn’t remember the scene, but, yeah, maybe it’s there. It’s me getting old. Lol…
Grand, grand, grand photos! I love the DIA. Though small but it’s awesome!
Pretty! Thiis has been an extremely wonderfuul post. Thank you for
providing these details.