Man at the Crossroads

Man at the Crossroads
The recreated version of the painting, known as Man, Controller of the Universe
Artist	Diego Rivera
Year	1933
Medium	Fresco
Movement	Mexican muralist
Dimensions	4.85 m × 11.45 m (15.9 ft × 37.6 ft)
Condition	Destroyed; a smaller replica made by Rivera in 1934 is located in the Palacio de Bellas Artes[1]
Location	30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City

Man at the Crossroads (1933) was a fresco by Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Originally slated to be installed in the lobby of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City, the fresco showed aspects of contemporary social and scientific culture. As originally installed, it was a three-paneled artwork. A central panel, depicting a worker controlling machinery, was flanked by two other panels, The Frontier of Ethical Evolution and The Frontier of Material Development, which respectively represented socialism and capitalism.

The Rockefeller family approved of the fresco's idea: showing the contrast of capitalism as opposed to communism. However, after the New York World-Telegram complained about the piece, calling it "anti-capitalist propaganda", Rivera added images of Vladimir Lenin and a Soviet May Day parade in response. When these were discovered, Nelson Rockefeller – at the time a director of the Rockefeller Center – wanted Rivera to remove the portrait of Lenin,^[2] but Rivera was unwilling to do so.

In May 1933, Rockefeller ordered Man at the Crossroads to be plastered over and thereby destroyed before it was finished, resulting in protests and boycotts from other artists.^[3] The fresco was peeled off in 1934 and replaced by a mural from Josep Maria Sert three years later. Only black-and-white photographs exist of the original incomplete fresco, taken when Rivera suspected it might be destroyed. Using the photographs, Rivera repainted the composition in Mexico under the variant title Man, Controller of the Universe.

The controversy over the fresco was significant because Rivera's communist ideals contrasted with the theme of Rockefeller Center, even though the Rockefeller family themselves admired Rivera's work. The creation and destruction of the fresco is dramatized in the films Cradle Will Rock (1999) and Frida (2002). The reactions to the fresco's controversy have been dramatized in Archibald MacLeish's 1933 collection Frescoes for Mr. Rockefeller's City as well as in E. B. White's 1933 poem "I paint what I see: A ballad of artistic integrity".