FOUR WALLS

Britany Lambert
Essay 1: Who are We?
Wednesday Seminar

Everyone has a different way of seeing things. Some see the positive side of things, whereas
others only see the negative. There are also people who see what something was in the past, and the
potential it has in the future. Detroit, unfortunately, is a city where many people see only the bad.
Other cities and states use Detroit as a way to scare their communities, using our crime, poverty
and graduation rates against us. They say things like, Do you want to end up like Detroit? or At least
were not Detroit. Nobody really learns to not to judge a book by its cover. How can someone from
outside the city say they know who and what we are? They may only hear the bad, but that is because
thats all society cares about on the news, seeing someone who has it worse. Detroit may not hold the
beauty it once had on the outside, but it still holds beauty within. The site my group chose to depict what
represents Detroit and us as a community was the Diego Rivera murals in the DIA. In just four walls,
Rivera captured the industry, diversity, and advances Detroit held for the future.
Rivera saw what people fail to see now. He didnt just capture the city, but he captured the people
of the city who make the city what it is. It did seem crazy then; allowing a Mexican artist to come in and
start painting about a city he had never been to before. It also seemed crazy that they asked a Mexican
artist. Rivera didnt just come and start painting, though. He spent three months studying the city and
getting to know its culture before he began to paint. Eleven months and twenty-seven panels later,
Riveras Detroit Industry murals were completed. He viewed industry and technology as the main culture
of Detroit, as well as pointing out the advances Detroit would make in the near future.
When you enter Garden Court or Rivera Court, the first wall you see is the East wall. In the
middle of the wall, you see a baby cradled in the bulb of a plant which symbolizes the beginning of new
life, as well as the beginning of the murals. The bulb of the plant and the two panels of fruit and
vegetables suggest the start of new agricultural advances in the world. In the top corner panels sit two
nude women holding crops, relating the beginning of new life with the women symbolizing fertility and

holding the crops indicating the beginning of agricultural advances.

The next two walls in the Court are the largest two walls in the entire mural. These are the North
and South walls. These walls hold the main focus of what made Detroit the Motor City. The North
Walls main focus is the assembly of the motor, the industry of Detroit. Rivera spent time studying
workers and machine movement so he could really capture the life of the factory in his painting, from
making molten steel to a finished motor on an assembly line. In the middle of this piece you see two tall,
white spindles. This draws your eye down the middle and you see what looks like a continuous assembly
line of workers that never seems to end. If you continue up the middle, you see the furnace of the factory,
flaming hot, leading up to minerals used for heating steel.

North Wall

Rivera didnt stop there, though. He continues on the South Wall with the assembly of the body
of a car. He displays the parts being stamped out on the right, and the assembly line of workers creating
the car, ending in the middle with the finished product. Many faces of workers were inspired by friends
and people Rivera worked with, including DIA employees.

South Wall
Rivera also painted William Valentiner (blue) and Edsel Ford (gray) in the bottom right corner.
Valentiner asked Rivera to paint the murals and Ford supported the capital. It is a tradition in European
art-making to include the donors in the paintings. On the West Wall, one will find the last few panels

focused on the industry. On the top panels, Rivera painted the construction of airplanes. This arose from
the building of the largest plane at the Ford plant. Lastly, on both sides of the entrance, one finds a worker
on the left, and a manager on the right. This represents the relationship between the two and how they are
both associated with power.

Rivera did not just display the industrial advances Detroit was making. He also showed how
Detroit was coming together and racism was fading in the background. In the top of the North and South
wall are two women on each side, one European, one African-American, one Asian, and one Native
American. We were becoming more equal and working together. Each women is holding an element:
iron, coal, limestone and sand. These elements are all used to make steel, symbolizing the industry.
Although each woman is a different race and holding a different element, they are all viewed equally.
Rivera saw how several races were working together as a team, putting aside any racial tensions they may
have held, to complete their task in the factories of Detroit. He was inspired to note this within his
painting. Rivera based these women off people he worked with and met while researching in Detroit. If
we go back to the North wall, towards the bottom right, there are three men of different races to
symbolize minorities working together and dissolving racial issues.

While we continued to make advances in the automobile industry, we also made way for new
health advances. The picture of the left represents the vaccination advancements that were being made at
the time. This includes animals to represent the animal testing for those vaccinations, a child receiving the
shot, and three doctors who helped create it. The chemist surrounded by aides, to the right of the mural,
signifies the recent pharmaceutical companies advancements of that era.

There was, however, a lot of controversy when the murals were displayed. A few panels were
based on religion, which offended the different cultures he included within the mural. Others were
offended by the pornographic aspects of the mural. Nevertheless, I believe Rivera captured the underlying
spirit of Detroit, and what it was going to become. The murals still depict what Detroit is today with the
industry and diversity within the city. The community is working together and still advancing every day.
There is so much more information about the murals that one would have to see for themselves. When
you go to the DIA and make your way to the Rivera Court, there is an iPad containing more information
about Rivera and the murals. You can watch videos about each part of each wall, and what it stands for,
why Rivera painted what he did, and where he got some of his ideas. Our group didnt just decide to
cover the Rivera murals. We had three choices: Belle Isle, the Fisher Building, and The DIA Rivera
Court. After researching each option, and communicating amongst one another, we decided that the

murals were our best choice. It was also convenient that the DIA is right next to campus. Unfortunately,
our schedules did conflict, and we had to go to the DIA at different times instead of together as a group.
We wanted to find a site that represented who we are as Detroiters in several different ways. There is
much more to Detroit than just being The Motor City or a failed city that will never get better.

Sources:
"Rivera Court: Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Fresco Paintings The Detroit Institute of Arts." Rivera
Court: Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Fresco Paintings The Detroit Institute of Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. 23
Sept. 2014.
Gonyea, Don. "Detroit Industry: The Murals of Diego Rivera." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
"Diego Riveras Murals At Detroit Institute Of Arts Get Historic Landmark Status - CBS Detroit." CBS
Detroit. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
"This Is Our City." Christianity Today, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
"Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals." - Smarthistory. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
"Bridgeman Images." Bridgeman Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
"Images of Murals by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts." Images of Murals by Diego Rivera at
the Detroit Institute of Arts. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.