Art of Seeing

Amy Peters

Art 101G

John Adams

28 September 2015

The Art of Seeing Essay

Diego Rivera

Detroit Industry

Pg. 119

Fresco

Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry is a fresco mural that was completed in March of 1933.  He used wet lime plaster to create this piece.  It is located in the Detroit Institute of the Arts in Detroit, Michigan.  The mural consist of 27 individual murals, the two largest are located on the north and south walls of the institute.  The north and south wall upper register center panes are 106 x 540 inches in size.

It is a representational work of art that he started it in 1932, when he was asked to complete a mural of Detroit’s history by the son of Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, and William Valentiner.  There are several different focal points since it’s broken up into panels.  The mural has many different thing’s going on so one might say it’s “busy”.  The contrast is apparent throughout the mural’s panels by use of highlighting with brightness and offsetting it with rich darkness.

Rivera’s mural is done using the Fresco method.  Wet lime plaster is the binder and wet pigments are applied to it.  The freshly laid plaster is prepared daily since it drys quickly ony a portion of the mural can be completed at a time.   When the lime hits the air it creates calcium crystals that bind the pigment into the plaster.  This method creates a smooth surface that becomes part of the wall or plaster rather than resting on top.  The piece comes together so well the way the curves meet the angles and the contrast of light and dark primarily in the middle three panels of the wall that is presented in the text book. While the two right panels are lighter than the two on the left.  The mural takes up several walls and allows different aspects of the subject matter to be displayed; some parts more dominate than others.