I call this image The Other Side of Awe. That is what I saw today (Sunday) on this young woman's face as she looked at Diego Rivera's monumental "Detroit Industry" frescoes in the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). We here in Detroit are fortunate to have the largest and most significant frescoes ever painted in North America by the Mexican master muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957). Well, that's not exactly true. In 1933, soon after completing the Detroit frescoes, Rivera was commissioned by the Rockefellers to paint a fresco in the lobby of the RCA Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center. But when Mr. Rockefeller ordered Rivera to remove the portrait he'd painted of Lenin leading a May Day demonstration march of workers carrying red banners, the artist refused. Rockefeller then had the unfinished fresco completely painted over. So "Detroit Industry" is the most significant SURVIVING fresco painted by Diego Rivera in the United States. CLICK HERE to see photos of the DIA frescoes and read a bit about their history.

My house guest Dorothy, whom I took the Detroit Institute of Arts today, was mightily impressed. Her question to me was, "Why are Detroit's cultural achievements so little recognized by the world?" I don't know the answer to that.

CLICK HERE to view others participating in "The Other Side" PaD challenge for May 2008.