Hacker Cinema
Cradle Will Rock
1999 · Film · 132 min
Directed by Tim Robbins
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
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In the movie Cradle will Rock, there are several fictional scenes about the real-world mural painted by Diego Rivera for the NYC Rockefeller Building. The mural was subsequently destroyed after a disagreement about Lenin, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_at_the_Crossroads. In a key scene, Nelson Rockefeller asks Rivera to remove Lenin from the mural:
https://youtube.com/watch?t=68m51s&v=rqPE0YYgwjI
Rockefeller: This is not a revolution, Diego. This is United States. It's not Russia. Rivera: And I am Diego Rivera. Not Frederick Remington. Man: You understand that it is entirely inappropriate to feature a communist leader in the lobby of a Rockefeller Building? Rivera: No! I believe nothing in art is inappropriate. I paint what I see.
Later, in a conversation about replacing "socially conscious" art by funding "abstract" art:
https://youtube.com/watch?t=104m09s&v=rqPE0YYgwjI
Rockefeller: I wouldn't have had this problem with Picasso or Matisse. Cardinal: We can control the future of art because we pay for the future of art. Appoint people to your museum board who detest the Riveras of this world. Celebrate the Matisses. Create the next wave of art. You have the purse strings, it's quite obvious you have the power. Rockefeller: Cultural power. To pay for the Matisse. All: Celebrate colors. Celebrate form. Portraits. Countrysides. Men on horses. Sunsets. Nudes. https://youtube.com/watch?t=107m43s&v=rqPE0YYgwjI
Cardinal: Nelson will fund the new wave of art. A traveling exhibit throughout Europe, highlighting American artists. Mathers: Non-politcal. Rockefeller: Yes. Abstract. Colors and form, not politics. Cardinal: My papers will hail it as the next new thing. Canonize the artist. Make them rich. And soon enough, all artists will be doing the next new thing. Mathers: You think? Something about artists, they always get socially concerned. Cardinal: Sure, but they won't get paid for it. Rockefeller: They won't be seen, they will have no influence. Mathers: Rather than starve, they will adapt, it's survival.
The New York City MoMA, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Modern_Art#History
"The idea for The Museum of Modern Art was developed in 1929 primarily by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.) and two of her friends, Lillie P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan ... When Abby Rockefeller's son Nelson was selected by the board of trustees to become its flamboyant president in 1939, at the age of thirty, he became the prime instigator and funder of its publicity, acquisitions and subsequent expansion into new headquarters on 53rd Street."
The version of this mural in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City is spectacular and anyone interested should go see it. The Palacio itself is a gorgeous museum and theatre with a world famous folkloric dance company, too.
The 1999 movie Cradle Will Rock contains a retelling of the story of the mural and delicious visuals.
Of course Lenin was nasty and evil and Rivera's politics were awful. Wise people don't judge art by its creators' politics and personal lives. Rivera's sense of progress, science, and respect for both the past and the joys of the machine age shine through the bad politics of the day to make this a brilliant piece in spite of its flaws.
(One of the flaws is that the Palacio isn't designed for a mural and therefore has giant gorgeous marble columns impeding any view of the whole work at once; just step up close and enjoy it in pieces.)