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14 comments to "Five Controversial Murals"
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redfishjohn
February 19th, 2008 at
6:39 pm
The Rivera mural incident inspired E.B.White to publish the following poem:
I Paint What I See
– by E.B. White“‘What do you paint, when you paint on a wall?’
Said John D.’s grandson Nelson.
‘Do you paint just anything there at all?
‘Will there be any doves, or a tree in fall?
‘Or a hunting scene, like an English hall?’‘I paint what I see,’ said Rivera.
‘What are the colors you use when you paint?’
Said John D.’s grandson Nelson.
‘Do you use any red in the beard of a saint?
‘If you do, is it terribly red, or faint?
‘Do you use any blue? Is it Prussian?’‘I paint what I paint,’ said Rivera.
‘Whose is that head that I see on the wall?’
Said John D.’s grandson Nelson.
‘Is it anyone’s head whom we know, at all?
‘A Rensselaer, or a Saltonstall?
‘Is it Franklin D.? Is it Mordaunt Hall?
Or is it the head of a Russian?‘I paint what I think,’ said Rivera.
‘I paint what I paint, I paint what I see,
‘I paint what I think,’ said Rivera,
‘And the thing that is dearest in life to me
‘In a bourgeois hall is Integrity;
‘However . . .
‘I’ll take out a couple of people drinkin’
‘And put in a picture of Abraham Lincoln;
‘I could even give you McCormick’s reaper
‘And still not make my art much cheaper.
‘But the head of Lenin has got to stay
‘Or my friends will give the bird today,
‘The bird, the bird, forever.’‘It’s not good taste in a man like me,’
Said John D.’s grandson Neslon,
‘To question an artist’s integrity
‘Or mention a practical thing like a fee,
‘But I know what I like to a large degree,
‘Though art I hate to hamper;
‘For twenty-one thousand conservative bucks
‘You painted a radical. I say shucks,
‘I never could rent the offices—–
‘The capitalistic offices.
‘For this, as you know, is a public hall
‘And people want doves, or a tree in hall
‘And though your art I dislike to hamper,
‘I owe a little to God and Gramper,
‘And after all,
‘It’s my wall . . .’‘We’ll see if it is,’ said Rivera.
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Doug
February 19th, 2008 at
7:17 pm
I can’t make out much of anything in that Hercules mural.
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scooter
February 19th, 2008 at
7:18 pm
right on about DIA…..lots of strange stuff is happening there. do a google search on DIA or on “subterranean structures”, followed by your introduction to the “subterrene” and you will get the begeezus scared out of you. the Mormons are in on it as well! prepare for battle, soldier.
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thejungleman
February 19th, 2008 at
7:25 pm
In the Disney one, I never new NAZIS wore modern era police uniforms. I always thought they wore the brown ones they wear,….constantly, in damn near every picture I’ve ever seen.
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RSMilward
February 19th, 2008 at
7:40 pm
You forgot the mural, “The Historic Struggle of the Little Guys to Finish the Mural”!
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ad
February 19th, 2008 at
9:05 pm
plus Siquieros’s America tropical. He was deported for this mural in fact!
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Tempscire
February 20th, 2008 at
1:00 am
I second Doug. Perhaps it’d help if I were more familiar with Hercules’ deeds? Nonetheless, the one second from the left and the one second from the right both look to me rather…phallacious, as it were.
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Jonn
February 20th, 2008 at
3:38 am
In terms of Disney Nazism, Walt Disney was in fact a strong supporter of the Nazi party and quite an anti-Semite.
The guy in the mural is somewhat irrelevant…
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TV Spy
February 20th, 2008 at
4:57 am
Very interesting, the first one doesn’t seem right for an airport - so I can understand why they wouldn’t a picture of dead children on the wall as tourists enter the city.
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dan
February 20th, 2008 at
8:43 am
the ‘nazi’ looks like aquaman
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Man or Monster
February 20th, 2008 at
12:06 pm
That DIA one is very clearly pushing an overwrought ecological message. C’mon… a forest burning (not a city), dead animals, dead Indians? “O NOES! They are killing animals and putting them in museums!” I thought it was going to be controversial because of how ridiculous it is, not because people thought it had hidden messages. And yeah, poor choice for a place where thousands of tourists arrive each day. As if airports weren’t stressful enough without having to see depictions of calamity.
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Weakly
February 20th, 2008 at
1:19 pm
Nazi or man in a blue shirt? You be the judge!
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DJS
February 21st, 2008 at
9:07 pm
I attended Indiana University of Bloomington where there was a controversial mural in Woodburn Hall:
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Jessica
March 2nd, 2008 at
12:28 pm
The O’Charley’s restaurant in Winston-Salem, NC, next to Hanes Mall, has a HORRIBLE painted mural. I will try to take a picture of it the next time I am there. It is supposed to represent the city of Winston-Salem but it doesn’t really say anything about the city at all. There is a section in the upper left hand corner that is supposed to be two children having fun on a fair ride, but one of them is making the SCARIEST face. The middle of the mural is a giant twenty foot head of an unattractive girl.
I think that the man in the Disney painting is scary, but most certainly not a Nazi. He looks as if he has a gun, though.
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