"If someone buys the Sistine Chapel, does he have the authority to destroy it?". Diego Rivera, 1934

In May, 1933, as Americans were beginning to recover from the Great Depression and the extreme poverty brought on by the Dust Bowl, the Rockefeller family commissioned Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, to paint an enormous fresco for the lobby of the RCA building at 30 Rock in Rockefeller Center. It was to be entitled: “Man at the Crossroads”, a 15 X 37-foot painting that was to depict “the social, political, industrial, and scientific possibilities of the twentieth century”. To see the entire mural, go to https://upload.wikimedia.org/.../Libro_Los_Viejos_Abuelos...

The central panel depicted a machine operator – a laborer – with an expression on his face that projected uncertainty and even skepticism that the machine could be operated at all. He was flanked by two other panels to be known as, “The Frontier of Ethical Evolution” and “The Frontier of Material Development”, which respectively represented socialism and capitalism. The Roosevelt family approved of this theme in spite of the fact that they had created the corporate imperium that was American domestic and international business. Their fortune began with the establishment of Standard Oil, one of the predecessors of Exxon and Mobil Oil. The Rockefellers drew up a 3-page contract with Rivera in 1933, commissioning what they thought would be an important piece of art that would cause people to think deeply about the future of the 20th Century.

Rivera, began his fresco in May of 1933 in accordance with his 3-page contract with the Roosevelt family, but as the piece progressed and criticism began to mount, Rivera decided to insert his own political views into the painting. Rivera was a Marxist, as was his wife, Frida Kahlo, and as were many of his fellow artists in the Muralist Movement.

In the early iteration of the fresco, Rivera placed a laborer operating an enormous machine at the center, and on either side of the fresco he depicted the crossroads of the political ideologies dominating that period in history: capitalism (to the figure’s right) and communism (to the figure’s left). Why Nelson Rockefeller, the scion of one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties in the world - the family that built Standard Oil - would think that Rivera would paint anything other than he did is an interesting question. When Nelson Rockefeller saw that Rivera had painted the image of Vladimir Lenin on the left panel, Rockefeller, a lion of laissez-faire capitalism, was deeply offended and offered Rivera the option of simply removing the image of Lenin. Rivera refused, saying that he paints what he sees. In response, Nelson Rockefeller cancelled the project, paid Rivera in full, and directed employees to chip off the fresco entirely.

Fortunately, Rivera had photographed the mural as he painted, and with these photos, he was able to recreate the entire painting that now is housed in the Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico. He renamed the piece, “Man, Controller of the Universe”.

Rivera’s apostasy was much more than merely including a portrait of Vladimir Lenin on the “The Frontier of Ethical Evolution” panel. On the panel entitled “The Frontier of Material Development”, Rivera depicted the louche and debauched life of the wealthy - mired in corruption, monopolies, exploitation of labor, and the laissez-faire capitalism that was characteristic of the Gilded Era. And in this side, Rivera included a portrait of Nelson Rockefeller, himself. So, while Rockefeller envisioned a paean to modernity, where capitalism would join with socialism for a better future for mankind, what he got was Diego Rivera and his vision of the actual class divisions that tore apart the fabric of society – a vision where unregulated capitalism had, in fact, immiserated the working class.

“Man, Controller of the Universe” is a magnificent attempt to capture the angst felt by the majority of people due to the dramatic changes delivered to a society that was ill-equipped to find their place within it. Unregulated capitalism had transformed societies before societies could adapt to the power of the technological, financial, and cultural changes that had been introduced to it – to the massive scientific and technological advances that affect everyday life. Diego Rivera asked the question: can we manage this new world? His fresco was an expression of the times in which it was painted, but it is also a reflection of the times in which we now live.

And we’re still very much at Rockefeller’s “Crossroads”. What will technology bring us? What will a world where everybody can be educated bring us? While the power that technology and the fruits of capitalism have unceremoniously delivered the world endless power to transform, it is how we wield this power that will determine our future.

Art is history, an expression of its moment. And Diego Rivera’s fresco was, indeed, that. The “World Telegram” newspaper ran this headline following the display of the fresco in 1933: "Rivera Paints Scenes of Communist Activity and John D. Jr. Foots the Bill." The theme of Rockefeller Center was “New Frontiers”. Susana Pliego Quijano, co-author of “Man at the Crossroads: Diego Rivera’s Mural at Rockefeller Center”, wondered: “What made the Rockefellers think that Rivera’s vision would be the same as theirs?

And the debates we are having today, notwithstanding the nightly clown show that is the Republican Party, are still the subject of Rivera’s fresco. Can we manage this New Frontier? Can the American Imperium withstand its worst instincts, its history of slavery, its history of its Native American genocide? Will we fall backward to the original sins of our Founding Fathers? And most importantly, who gets to choose?