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The Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces, using your phone, tablet or computer. This episode - The Detroit Industry Murals by Diego Rivera.

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces, using your phone, tablet or computer.

Each thirty-minute episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork - and you're invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

This episode takes a closer look at the 'Detroit Industry Murals' by the Mexican artist, Diego Rivera. The masterpiece covers four walls in the Detroit Institute of Arts and gives viewers a glimpse into Ford's massive industrial complex in Detroit, known as The Rouge. How did Rivera - communist activist - come to create an artwork for the Fords - one of the wealthiest families in the world?

To see the high-resolution image, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures and follow the link to explore Detroit Industry.

Interviewees: Benjamin Colman, Tyler Taylor, Mark Castro, Barbara Haskell

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Art consultant: Leah Kharibian
Exec producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
With thanks to Renato González

A White Stiletto production for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4

Diego M. Rivera, Detroit Industry Murals North Wall (detail), 1932-1933, frescoes. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Edsel B. Ford, 33.10.

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Fri 5 Aug 2022 11:00

Broadcasts

  • Mon 23 Nov 2020 16:00
  • Fri 5 Aug 2022 11:00

Detroit Industry – Explore the high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture

From the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.