Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Motown Collection
Motown Collection
Just as Italy left many artistic treasures during the Renaissance, Detroit also left many cultural heritages reflecting the social changes in the era of big industry, among which the most historical and social treasure belongs to the mural atrium of Detroit Art Museum-Detroit Industry.
Founded in 1885, Detroit Art Museum is one of the earliest urban art galleries in the United States. In the past century, the museum witnessed the glory of the rise of the American big industrial era and the vicissitudes of the development of the automobile industry.
I had heard of this art hall before I came to Checheng, which contained Rodin's The Thinker and Van Gogh's self-portrait. However, on the day of my first visit to the museum, what impressed me the most was not these art treasures, but the art museum itself-the atrium of the museum.
Look, what atrium is this?
Beams of warm sunshine shed from the skylight, illuminating the beautiful patterns on the marble floor and the wide walls around the atrium. The walls are exquisite murals, which are lifelike in the bright sunshine.
In particular, two large murals on the north and south walls reproduce the magnificent scene of the automobile production line. Rows of tall machines are accompanied by dense workers, as well as towering steel furnaces, steel flowers splashed all over the walls and endless car bodies. Workers' modeling is magnificent, vigorous and harmonious, showing endless artistic charm.
Standing in front of the mural, the slogan "The working class has power" suddenly became concrete and vivid. Looking around, it seems to be in the historical corridor where Detroit's big industry is emerging. The majestic momentum and meaningful spirit of the industrial revolution flow in the heart like an epic, stirring in the heart.
If the mural itself intuitively shows the American industrial scene during the second industrial revolution, then the twists and turns around the mural can better reflect the ideological collision and profound and necessary artistic expression in the American social change.
Interestingly, the protagonist of this story is three people with completely different backgrounds: diego rivera, a red artist, Edsel Ford, a big capitalist, and William, an art scholar. Valentine's day.
Diego rivera has a wonderful and extraordinary artistic career. His unruly personality, his status as a man, his emotional entanglements in two marriages with Frida Kahlo, the wife of a legendary female artist, and a large number of influential murals he created made him one of the greatest artists in the 20th century.
Diego1886 65438+February was born in a moderately wealthy family in Mexico. At the age of three, he picked up a paintbrush and began to scribble on walls and furniture. Far-sighted father not only didn't stop Xiao Di's practical jokes, but posted drawing boards everywhere on the wall for him to draw ducks.
At the age of ten, Diego began to study art at the San Carlos Art Institute in Mexico and received strict and systematic academic art training. Later, he went to Europe for further study and was influenced by various European art schools, especially post-impressionist Paul Cézanne. Diego began to pay attention to the combination of impressionism and cubism, and integrated into Mexican folk art forms, gradually forming his own unique artistic style.
During his stay in Europe, Diego personally experienced the storm of the First World War. The success of the revolutionary movement in Mexico and the October Revolution in the Soviet Union led by Lenin also had a great influence on Diego's social concept. He began to pay attention to social problems in the form of art and actively participated in social movements.
1922, Diego returned to Mexico and soon joined Mexico. From 65438 to 0927, Diego participated in the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution in the former Soviet Union as a representative of Mexico. His friendship with Trotsky, a native of * * *, and the great help he gave during his exile were praised by people.
While devoting himself to social movements, Diego began to consider how to eulogize the magnificent social movements and the history of the development of human civilization in the form of art. Together with painters D.A.Siqueiros and Orozco, Diego began to publicize Mexico's historical traditions and revolutionary movements in the form of murals in Mexico.
As a master of mural painting, Diego used the internal relationship of content, form and concept in mural painting to balance the combination of image, color and space, and formed a unique personal artistic style integrating cubism, primitive style and pre-Colombian sculpture. His murals are intuitive in image, rich in color, huge in content and profound in meaning, and have strong ornamental and appeal.
At the beginning of last century, the old Ford dominated the manufacturing industry with T-cars and assembly lines, and established the world-famous Ford automobile kingdom.
As the only son of the automobile giant Old Ford, edsel was trained by Old Ford as the successor of Ford's automobile kingdom at an early age. 19 18, 25-year-old Adele naturally became the president of Ford.
Edsel and his father have different tastes and pursuits in vehicle development. He has a keen understanding of the interests of the younger generation of car consumers, all of which stems from his excellent artistic accomplishment. Edsel liked painting and photography since he was a child, and he had a high appreciation for works of art, so when the old Ford's representative model T remained unchanged for more than ten years and was about to be eliminated, edsel presided over the development of a variety of fashionable frontier models, which created a new situation for Ford.
As a typical representative of successful capitalists in Motown and even the United States, Ai Desai spared no effort to promote the development of Detroit art and was a long-term partner and patron of Detroit Art Museum. From 19 19, he was hired as the chairman of the management Committee of the art museum.
Even Old Ford often boasts proudly that Ai Desai is an artist in our family!
William? Valentina is an art historian, born in Germany. He has made great achievements in European classical and contemporary art appreciation, as well as in art collection. 19 13 years, he came to America and founded American art magazine.
William put forward many constructive suggestions in the early days of the establishment of Detroit Art Museum, which played a great role in the development of the Art Museum. From 1924, he was hired as the curator of Detroit Art Museum.
Under his leadership, the collection and construction of Detroit Art Museum has made great progress. He broke the traditional art exhibition mode of the art museum and introduced the arrangement mode with cultural history as the background, so that people can better understand many aspects of a culture through different kinds of art.
19 17, old Ford, who was at the peak of automobile manufacturing, began to build his dream automobile industry city on the banks of the Rouge River in Michigan. Ten years later, the rouge factory was built.
Upon completion, Rouge Factory covers an area of nearly four square kilometers, with 93 buildings, workshop area of 160,000 square feet, assembly line of160 kilometers long and more than 654.38+10,000 employees. In addition to the four major processes of automobile manufacturing, there are workshops for various parts, including glass manufacturing, steel mills and power plants. In the next twenty years, Rouge Factory is the largest automobile production base in the world.
In this way, the manufacturing miracle that old Ford was proud of appeared in Motown: the great ship on the Great Lake was busy shuttling, coming full of ore and coal, and leaving full of all kinds of brand-new cars. Old Ford once proudly declared to the world that the dream of large-scale industrial manufacturing was realized in rouge factory!
In the following decades, many Ford classics were born in Rouge Industrial City, including groundbreaking A-type cars, B-type cars, Thunderbirds and silver martens, as well as the immortal myth of Ford Mustang and pickup truck F 150. During World War II, it was a true portrayal of President Roosevelt's "arsenal of democratic countries".
The objective conditions for artistic creation with the theme of industrial revolution have been met, and all that is needed is chance.
Chance hovers between chance and necessity.
During the period of 1930, the cyclical economic crisis of American capitalism broke out and the society entered the Great Depression, but the artistic activities were unprecedentedly active and the wind of freedom prevailed. Diego, an artist who has made great achievements in the field of murals in neighboring countries, began to enter the field of vision of the American art world. In the summer of 193 1, new york Museum of Modern Art dedicated a solo exhibition to Diego, which caused quite a stir.
Later, Diego was invited to finish two murals in San Francisco. One is the mural production of the San Francisco Art Museum, and the other is the California fable of the San Francisco Stock Exchange.
William and Diego met at a friend's party. William immediately suggested to Diego: How about creating a large industrial mural for Detroit?
Diego readily agreed.
After returning to Detroit, William's first task was to solve the financial problems. Affected by the Great Depression, the funding for art galleries has been greatly reduced, from 400,000 yuan last year to 40,000 yuan this year. The cost of creating murals should be at least 1 ten thousand dollars, accounting for a quarter of the museum's annual budget. Where does this fund come from?
Later, William thought of Ai Desai and asked him to donate murals in his own name. Ai Desai readily promised that the iron triangle born for murals was thus formed.
In order to find creative inspiration, Diego came to Rouge Factory and was soon fascinated by the pattern and style of large-scale industrial production here. In the next three months, Diego worked tirelessly to draw thousands of materials in the rouge factory.
He saw the magnificent and harmonious scene of huge machines and busy workers on the production line. Here, machines are no longer cold and heartless props, but living works of art. He was also moved by the production rhythm shown by the workers on the production line.
The practice of Rouge Factory greatly stimulated his creative passion. He wants to preach for the big industry, he wants to eulogize the laborers, he wants to keep the industrial revolution in Checheng forever in the form of art, and at the same time express his thinking about reality and his vision for the future. He wants to complete a grand narrative masterpiece in Checheng!
However, the length of the existing two murals is far from satisfying this grand idea.
On that day, Diego stood in the atrium of the museum and looked around. A bold idea flashed: create murals on the four walls of the entire atrium of the museum! He wants to do more than just mural painting in the atrium. He wants to make a mural atrium!
This is exactly what William wants, and it is also his long-cherished wish to run a museum for many years: the museum should not only display its collections, but also become a work of art that can be passed down from generation to generation!
After accumulating enough materials, Diego began to elaborate his mural atrium.
His first thought is life. All the development of human society, including industrial civilization, comes from life. So Diego drew a picture of a baby in its infancy in the middle of the wall in front of the big court. At that time, his beloved wife had just experienced the pain of miscarriage, and there were obviously artists here who were full of affectionate comfort and praise for her pregnant life.
The highest position on the wall is a picture of two mothers. They bare their breasts and hold gifts from nature, telling people that it is these great mothers who have nurtured their lives with selfless dedication.
In contrast, the wall shows the scientific and technological strength of human social progress. There are some people who coordinate with science and technology, such as space technology that can benefit mankind, and there are also strong concerns that science and technology can destroy mankind, such as several tuskegee airmen and soldiers wearing gas masks.
Faced with this contradictory social reality, there are sunflowers and pigeons symbolizing harmony and beauty in Diego's works to express his heartfelt prayers for harmony and peace between people.
A relief mural in the middle, with several panicked fish, shows the disturbance to nature while human society is active. The five-pointed star in the middle can be regarded as the red star from the Soviet Union or the white star on the American Stars and Stripes.
Legend: On the wall panels on both sides of the gate, he painted large power machines with beautiful shapes, as well as the images of managers and engineers.
On the wallboard on both sides of the gate, he painted large power machines with beautiful shapes, as well as the images of managers and engineers. Look closely, these characters all have the genes of old Ford and Edison on their faces. Diego pays tribute to the pioneers of the industrial revolution.
On the giant walls on the north and south sides, artists' impressions and thoughts on the industrial revolution as a whole are concentrated. At the top are four ethnic groups with different skin colors in the automobile industry: white people from Europe, black people from Africa, yellow people from Asia and brown people from other regions.
After describing various technologies such as chemistry, biology and medical treatment in detail, the artists spent a lot of time drawing the engine and vehicle assembly production line of Rouge Factory. The whole wall is full of huge machines, intensive workers and car bodies arranged on automatic conveyor belts. The whole picture perfectly reproduces the scene of large-scale industrial production, which is beautiful and magnificent.
It is worth noting that in Diego's works, workers of all colors coordinate production together. This is obviously not the reality that the United States was still under the apartheid policy at that time, but the artist's yearning and longing for the future.
Looking around the atrium, it is a hymn to the great industrial revolution, a hymn to the workers, and a beautiful movement in which human beings coexist harmoniously with nature and machines.
The following spring, when Digo was about to finish his mural creation, arguments followed. Some people accuse murals of praising laborers and belittling capitalists. Some people even accused Diego's paintings of being suspected of encouraging the workers' movement in Checheng.
On the fifth day after the mural was completed, all kinds of accusations flooded all kinds of media in Detroit. Someone asked, in Detroit, where the contradiction between labor and capital is so acute, why should a red artist be invited to make a mural to promote the workers in such an important position in the museum?
Several conservative groups in Detroit jointly sent a formal letter to the museum, asking the museum to investigate the background and content of this mural. If the above allegations are true, these groups will formally ask the government to destroy these murals.
In the noisy opposition, William, the curator of the museum, firmly stood on the artist's side and defended the artist's creative freedom. He patiently explained to people that a great work of art reflecting social reality will certainly stand the test of time. William also launched the American Art League to support artists' creation.
William firmly believes that Diego's murals will be recognized by most people. He decisively opened the door of the art museum and invited the citizens of Checheng to visit. On that day, thousands of people flocked to the atrium hall of the museum. After seeing the murals, people made many positive comments, which gradually offset the attacks and prejudices of the extreme right forces.
Ai Desai also issued a statement of firm support for the mural atrium: I believe Diego is trying his best to express and embody the Detroit spirit, and I am very satisfied with the artist's mural creation.
In this way, the murals in the atrium of the museum have been completely preserved, leaving a valuable cultural and artistic heritage for Detroit, the city of industrial revolution.
But Diego's other masterpiece is not so lucky.
After finishing industrial murals in Detroit, Diego was invited by Rockefeller Jr., another typical representative of American capitalist wealth, to make large murals for Rockefeller Building in new york. When the mural was nearing completion, Diego was even more violently attacked by the capitalist group in new york.
In this mural entitled "The Man at the Crossroads", Diego used a large number of characters to face the social reality of the depression and decline of capitalism at that time, and compared it with the social form represented by the Soviet Union, expressing a sharp criticism of what human beings should do at the crossroads.
If "Detroit Industry" is the artist's thinking about industrial revolution and human development, then "Man at the Crossroads" is his thinking about social revolution and human development.
Faced with fierce criticism, Rockefeller Jr., who loves art, tried his best to protect Diego's artistic creation. But when I finally saw Lenin's image appear in the mural, his artistic bottom line collapsed. So there was a scene in the movie Frida.
That morning, Rockefeller Jr. and a group of followers came to the artist's work site and begged Digo again: Please erase Lenin's image.
The artist is very determined: no!
After a silence, Rockefeller Jr. handed the artist a check: This is your full reward. You are fired.
Soon, the murals were covered with white cloth. A few days later, the mural disappeared with the peeling of the wall.
Accompanied by it, there is the Rockefeller family's dream of using art to pass down from generation to generation.
I can't see Rockefeller Jr.' s mood at that time in the movie, but I think he must have regretted it later. After a long time, the Rockefeller family increased its sponsorship of art activities, but it was never so close to a work of art that could be passed down from generation to generation, which failed to give the Rockefeller Building eternal artistic value.
Digo is not reconciled to the disappearance of this masterpiece. Later, he copied this work on the wall of the Mexican Art Palace with the title "Man Controls the Universe", which became the treasure of the town hall of the Mexican Art Palace today.
The debate on how to deal with the opposition between art and social reality caused by Diego murals has never stopped.
In the 1960 s, this argument became more intense. President Kennedy once said: When artists sharply criticize our society, it is their unique sensitivity to things and their strong concern for justice. For the sake of national civilization and progress, I don't see anything more important than fully maintaining and exerting the creative potential of artists.
Two years after the assassination of President Kennedy, the American government finally established the National Art Sponsorship Foundation with funds, and established a creative environment that guaranteed artists' independence and freedom. Under the logo of the foundation, there is a sentence from hit floor: a great country should have great art. ..
China has made great achievements in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, and China's automobile industry is also in an unprecedented glorious period.
However, after countless skyscrapers and magnificent halls have sprung up all over China, we seldom see works of art that have the distinctive characteristics and spirit of our times and can be passed down from generation to generation.
Is it true that today's China can only find the confidence of artistic China from The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival?
When welcoming the arrival of the fourth industrial revolution, I sincerely hope that my domestic automobile colleagues will come to Motown, take time to stop for a moment in front of the murals in the atrium of Detroit Art Museum, feel the pulse of the industrial revolution that Motown once led, and experience the collision and thinking in the process of the big industrial revolution.
Looking forward to seeing China's Diego, Ai Desai and William in the surging automobile industry in China.
After all, the car will go after all, and art will last forever.
Today, who can imagine that more than half a century ago, a deep-rooted capitalist could fund a red artist to create this group of large-scale murals reflecting the industrial revolution and eulogizing the workers in the most precious places in capitalist towns?
What kind of brilliance does human civilization and art shine here?
Linda Dowens, a cultural scholar, said after studying Diego's murals in depth: Today, we are wandering in the splendid Italian art, trying our best to feel and explain the glory of the Renaissance; We also linger in Mayan monuments, feeling and appreciating the glory of ancient Mayan culture. So, many years later, what will our future generations see when they begin to overlook the great industrial revolution era in which we live? They will definitely feel the glory of the great industrial era that happened in Detroit from these murals of Detroit industry.
As time goes by, the mural atrium in this Detroit museum will surely become more dazzling. It will show our descendants the eternal smile of the big industrial age like Mona Lisa.
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