Community Rights to Public Art (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Controversy at Rockefeller Center: Phantom Publics, Aesthetic Barbarians
This article investigates the Rivera controversy at Rockefeller Center arguing that the controversy illuminates tensions in democratic culture over the role of the masses and their relation to the "legitimate" public, exhibited in anxieties about phantom publics and barbarian crowds. Beginning with critical discourse surrounding the construction of Rockefeller Center, the mural controversy is resituated within a broader frame in which revanchist anxieties and worry about mass media play a crucial role. Appeals during the construction of the building to the "public" character of the structure took on a life of their own during the apex of the Rivera controversy.
ANALES DEL INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ESTÉTICAS, 2022
On May 9, 1933, engineers working for the Rockefeller family ordered Diego Rivera to stop work on Man at the Crossroads, a mural for the Radio City of America building at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. The family took offense at the inclusion of a portrait of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in the mural. After covering up the unfinished mural, the Rockefellers had it destroyed in February 1934, while Rivera repainted the mural, refashioned as El hombre, controlador del universo (Man, Controller of the Universe) at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.Through a close reading of the left-wing press of the time, this article examines the “battle at Rockefeller Center,” through Rivera’s relationship to three competing self-styled Communist groups and their role in the campaign to defend Rivera.
Writing on the Walls: Reactions to Rivera's "Public" Art in America
Rivera was an artist of his times who understood the necessity and the possibilities of summoning the spectator through the most modern means of communication and, more specifically, through scandal and sensationalism of the press. 1 Scandal and sensationalism. During his brief time in America, Mexican muralist Diego Rivera became all too familiar with both. On March 18, 1933, an editorial in The Detroit News attacked Rivera"s art as "coarse in conception…foolishly vulgar…a slander to Detroit workmen…un-American," and called for his murals to be whitewashed. Just over a year later, the headline of the New York World-Telegram read "Rivera Paints Scenes of Communist
Challenges in the creation of murals: A theoretical framework
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2021
Murals have become a familiar element in urban landscapes around the world, providing benefits for individuals, communities, and cities. Many murals have been co-opted by city administrations as part of broader municipal policies. Despite the benefits associated with murals, they provoke tensions and contradictions that challenge policymakers, owners, communities, and those involved in their creation. This paper explores and maps the difficulties and challenges associated with placing murals in the public realm, providing a theoretical framework and highlighting their complexity. Additionally, we demonstrate how these challenges may turn into real-life disputes, cause public outrage, and create tensions between stakeholders in a manner which affects cityscape and urban development. Through case-examples from Portland and Philadelphia, we demonstrate how our theoretical framework can be used to better understand these challenges, and to explore how a range of interests might clash in the face of said challenges.
How Much Control do Cities Want Over Their Public Spaces? A Look into Mural Policies
Street Art and Urban Creativity, 2020
While promoting mural policies, city administrations are faced with the difficult task of determining the level of control they wish to maintain over urban public spaces. The premise of this paper is that, for local governments, the control and influence over murals in the urban sphere is a mixed blessing. As this control increases, officials acquire stronger tools to shape the city’s murals, but they also become liable for their content and maintenance, inevitably undermining the freedoms, alternately, of property owners and artists. As control decreases, artistic and proprietorial rights are more easily asserted, but at the same time the city forfeits its ability to determine how its public spaces will look. Moreover, conflicts between stakeholders are more likely to occur, possibly requiring government intervention. This paper brings these issues into focus by exploring the role of city administrations as regulators and managers of murals located in the public realm. Using, in particular, the case study of Portland, Oregon, the paper highlights the dilemmas cities face when addressing these issues