Men at the Crossroads: The Unlikely Partnership of Diego Rivera and the Rockefellers

Abstract

Since its inception, art has been a tool of communication. Whether depicting animal migrations on cave walls, portraiture of nobles, or political propaganda, art has always put forth the view of the creator. One artist who understood this was Diego Rivera. Before receiving the patronage of the Rockefeller family and becoming a household name in the Uruted States during the 1930s, he was well-known in his native Mexico for creating outspoken murals railing against imperialism and capitalism. The Rockefellers were, as Martin Morse Wooster describes them, the "first family of American patronage of the arts." Diego Rivera's unlikely partnership with these paragons of the very values his art spoke against was perhaps one of the most odd and confusing events of the time. What would have motivated the Rockefellers to gamble on a relationship with Rivera, and exactly why did Rivera accept? Fully aware of who they were working with, both parties willingly stepped into a partnership, yet they could not make it work when both parties decided they would not compromise their values. They set themselves up for failure when they decided to work with each other. What caused the Rockefellers to think such a partnership would work? It was not differing political ideologies, but rather internal and external pressures, unfortunate timing, and the growing stubbornness of Rivera.