Image: Diego Rivera Mural Sign

Description: Museum Director overseeing installation of a sign defending the artistic merits of Diego Rivera's murals in the face of anti-communist backlash. The sign reads: "Rivera's politics and his publicity seeking are detestable. But let's get the record straight on what he did here. He came from Mexico to Detroit, thought our mass production industries and our technology wonderful and very exciting, painted them as one of the great achievements of the twentieth century. This came after the debunking twenties when our artists and writers found nothing worthwhile in America and worst of all in America was the Middle West. Rivera saw and painted the significance of Detroit as a world city. If we are proud of this city's achievements, we should be proud of these paintings and not lose our heads over what Rivera is doing in Mexico today." (as quoted in Making the Modern: Industry, Art, and Design in America (1994), by Terry Smith.)
Title: Diego Rivera Mural Sign
Credit: Detroit Institute of Art, Media Relations
Author: Unknown authorUnknown author
Permission: This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1926 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart. Note that it may still be copyrighted in jurisdictions that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works (depending on the date of the author's death), such as Canada (50 years p.m.a.), Mainland China (50 years p.m.a., not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany (70 years p.m.a.), Mexico (100 years p.m.a.), Switzerland (70 years p.m.a.), and other countries with individual treaties.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No