Apr 21, 2011 - Sale 2244

Sale 2244 - Lot 298

Price Realized: $ 5,040
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
HIS INTERPRETATION OF DETROIT INDUSTRY MURALS RIVERA, DIEGO. Autograph Manuscript dated and Signed, draft of an untitled essay, in French, concerning the fresco paintings he had completed at the Detroit Institute of Arts a short time before writing, including a detailed interpretation of the significance of the themes and symbols that appear in the works. 12 1/4 pages, 4to, each page written on a separate sheet; slight even toning overall. Np, April 1933
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"As basic plan for the mural decoration of the garden court of the Detroit Instutute of Arts I chose the plastic expression of the undulating movement which one finds in water currents, electric waves, stratifications of the different layers under the surface of the earth and, in a general way, throughout the continuous development of life. . . .
"A city art museum . . . is, or ought to be, the central organism for the development of the aesthetic culture of the community. That is why . . . I was led to develop . . . in the series of frescoes the idea of the germ cell, depicted on the central wall, opposite the main entrance to the court. . . .
"If my Detroit frescoes are destroyed, I shall be profoundly distressed, as I put into them a year of my life and the best of my talent; . . ."
Published in English translation under the title,"Dynamic Detroit--an Interpretation," in Creative Art, April 1933, pp. 289-95.