Diego Rivera's paintings included large wall murals that very often contained social and political messages in them.
In 1932, Diego Rivera had been contracted to paint a mural in the RCA building (Rockfeller Center) in New York City, NY. He was given the theme: Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future and he entitled the work simply Man at the Crossroads. Before he was able to complete the mural, Nelson Rockfeller, concerned with the revolutionary connotations in the mural demanded that Diego Rivera remove Lenin from the painting. Diego Rivera refused to censor his work, and the entire mural was destroyed.
Diego Rivera would later create a smaller version of Man at the Crossroads in Mexico City. He entitled the new version of the mural Man, Controller of the Universe or Man in the Time Machine.
"The artist must try to raise the level of taste of the masses, not debase himself to the level of unformed and impoverished taste." - Diego Rivera
"Only the work of art itself can raise the standard of taste." - Diego Rivera
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