Atlas Statue at Rockefeller Center in New York
The sculpture depicts the Ancient Greek Titan Atlas holding the heavens. It was created by sculptor Lee Lawrie with the help of Rene Paul Chambellan, and it was installed in 1937.A recent PBS program featured the Rockefeller family. Like the Morgans, this is a family which influenced New York, and of course America.
The sculpture is in the Art Deco style, as is the entire Rockefeller Center. Atlas in the sculpture is 15 feet tall, while the entire statue is 45 feet tall, as high as a four-story building. It weighs seven tons, and is the largest sculpture at Rockefeller Center. The North-South axis of the armillary sphere on his shoulders points towards the North Star as seen from New York City. [Source: Wikipedia]
The program is in several parts. Here is a synopsis:
The Rockefellers" is the saga of four generations of a legendary American family whose name is synonymous with great wealth.I think this sums up the attitude of the PBS programmers: "The Rockefellers were evil capitalists who were only interested in how to get very rich, off the blood of sweat of ordinary Americans, including innocent competitors."
The story begins in the Christian revivalist fervor of the 1830s with a marriage of opposites: Eliza Davison, a pious young woman, and "Devil Bill" Rockefeller, swindler, snake-oil salesman, and eventually, bigamist. Their son, John D. Rockefeller, created an industrial empire -- and a personal fortune -- on a scale the world had never known. He ruthlessly crushed his competitors in the process, alienating the public and leaving a stain on the family name. His dutiful son, John D. Jr., was a self-sacrificing young man who devoted his life to redeeming his family's reputation. Junior's five sons scaled the heights of the American century. One, Nelson, reached highest, exposing the very private Rockefellers once again to the harsh judgment of public opinion. In the 1960s, a fourth generation of Rockefellers -- "the Cousins" -- rebelled against their family, which had come to personify what was then known as "the establishment. (More here)
What I saw was a hard-working, unsentimental family, which understood that making money was not a fool's business. Yet, at the same time, its members were deeply involved in their community, and by extension, their country. As they built their fortune, they also built their country.
Rather than their financial contributions, I was more interested in their architectural and artistic legacy, and more specifically, their legacy in New York City.
According to a list at Wikipedia's The Rockefeller Family, the Rockefellers left behind:
- Rockefeller Center, a multi-building complex built at the start of the Depression in Midtown Manhattan, financed solely by the familyA small, but significant, incident took place while the Rockefeller Center's mural was being designed. The chosen artist, Marixist Mexican Diego Rivera, had painted a portrait of Russian Communist leader Vladimir Illich Lenin on his mural. He was asked to replace it, but refused. He was removed from the premises, and the mural destroyed.
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City, from 1929 (Abby Aldrich, Junior, Blanchette, Nelson, David, David Jr., Sharon Percy Rockefeller)
- Riverside Church, New York City, 1930 (Junior)
- The Cloisters, New York City, from 1934 (Junior)
- Lincoln Center, New York City, 1962 (John D. 3rd)
- World Trade Center Twin Towers, New York City, 1973-2001 (David and Nelson)
This is how serious these "capitalists" were.
Below is a more detailed account of Rivera's presence in New York:
Rockefeller’s contractors sent proposals to three chosen artists-—Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Diego Rivera-—inviting each to participate in a “contest.” Instructions were clear, down to the material (canvas, not fresco), color scheme (black and white), and even the varnishing requirements (5 coats). And all three artists rejected the offer. As Rivera explained twenty-five years later in his autobiography, “there are few indignities that can be thrown in the face of an established painter greater than to offer him a commission on terms which imply any doubts as to his abilities.” Architect Raymond Hood was ready to drop Rivera, but Nelson Rockefeller-—executive vice-president for Rockefeller Center-—intervened, and his mother backed him up. Nelson praised Diego’s Detroit murals and wrote notes containing such flattering statements as “Please let me know when your frescoes in Detroit are finished so that we can arrange to come up and see them. Everybody is terribly anxious to see how you have interpreted the industrial life of Detroit” (letter of October 13, 1932). Rivera eventually agreed to do the mural, although negotiations dragged on over the summer between architect and artist over Rivera’s demands. According to Rivera, Nelson Rockefeller intervened in May 1932 and, in the end Rivera won out—he would be permitted to use color and the material could be fresco rather than canvas.Rivera recreated the mural in Mexico City, including Lenin and adding Trotsky. The Mexicans accepted it, and it still stands in the Palacio de Bellas Artes in the city's center. They can have it.
Rivera submitted a sketch addressing the agreed upon theme: “Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future.” The design concept, although eulogizing workers and indicting the more flagrant facets of American industrial society, was approved by Nelson and the architects. In March of 1933, Rivera set to work with a cadre of assistants.
As the painting neared completion in late April, a New York World-Telegram reporter, Joseph Lilly, visited the R.C.A. building for a preview. The resulting April 24 article, titled “Rivera Paints Scenes of Communist Activity and John D. Rockefeller Foots Bill,” highlighted many themes that were not at all new to those familiar with Rivera’s work. The abundance of the color red and the representation of toxic materials, for example, had also appeared in the Detroit murals. On April 28, however, an element was added that would almost seemed calculated to create controversy, the figure of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Illich Lenin.
Several days later, Raymond Hood the architect was on the scaffold examining some ceiling paint that had dripped onto Rivera’s mural and noticed the addition. And then, as Rivera’s assistant remembered, “the fun began.” On May 4, Rivera received a letter from Nelson Rockefeller. Claiming to find the mural “thrilling,” he nevertheless requested that another figure be substituted for that of Lenin because it “might seriously offend a great many people.” Although the figure of Lenin had not appeared in his original sketches, Rivera refused to budge. Lenin would remain, but he did offer to compromise by balancing Lenin's mural with that of some great American such as Abraham Lincoln. (The Correspondence between Rivera and Rockefeller)
At this point, the matter was turned over to the management team of Todd, Robertson, and Todd. Several days later, the Rockefeller Center management team—-along with security guards-—escorted Rivera off the scaffold, handed him a check for $14,000—the balance of his $21,000 commission—and placed tarpaper over the mural. Workers protested by picketing outside. Intellectuals, artists, and activists mounted both pro- and anti-Rivera campaigns.
The mural remained covered for about ten months. During the fall and winter, Nelson, Abby, and people from MoMA, tried to find a way for the fresco to be removed intact and transported to the museum, but no technique for removing it proved workable. At midnight on Saturday, February 9, 1934, the mural was destroyed and the chunks of plaster carted off in fifty-gallon oil drums.
Before we proceed to explore the cultural drama behind the creation and destruction of the most famous mural of the twentieth century, we should pause to consider what it looked like -- more or less. In 1934, Rivera recreated the design orginially intended for Rockefeller Center in the Palacio de Bella Artes, Mexico City. He entitled it, "Man, Controller of the Universe," and, in three obviously pointed gestures, kept the image of Lenin and added portraits of Trotsky and Nelson Rockefeller himself shown enjoying a drink in the nightclub scene beneath the hovering syphilis cells. [Source: The Battle of Rockefeller Center, Published by University of Virginia]
Diego Rivera's fresco Man at the Crossroads on the RCA building
at the Rockefeller Center, covered with canvas. It was destroyed over
the weekend of February 10–11, 1934 [Image and text source: Moma.org]
Below is a photo I took of the Cloisters, and here is a post I wrote on my visit to the Cloisters last year:
Garden in the Cloisters
Discussed in: Garden Guide: New York City pp. 33-37
Cloisters Flowers
[Photo by KPA, August 2012]
Cloisters Terrace With a View of the George Washington Bridge
[Photo by KPA, August 2012]
Above is a photo I took from Cloisters' terrace with a view of the George Washington Bridge and the Hudson River. Across the river is New Jersey, and the undeveloped stretch of land is the New Jersey Palisades. John D. Rockefeller had the Cloisters built especially to house his medieval collection. He also bought several acres of the Palisade hills across the river in order to have the best view possible from the Cloisters.
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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