tagged w/ Lenin
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NYRBlog
by Gary Willis
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Diego Rivera, detail of Lenin from Man, Controller of the Universe (1934), a recreation of the destroyed mural Man at the Crossroads
The Art Destroyers...
The newly elected governor of Maine, Paul LePage, is outspoken. He said that after his election readers could expect to see in their newspapers, “LePage tells Obama to go to hell.” When he refused to attend a Martin Luther King Day event, he said of the NAACP, “Tell them they can kiss my butt.” Not to be outdone by other Republican governors who are attacking unions, over the weekend he ordered the removal of a 36-foot mural celebrating labor from the lobby of the state Labor Department building in Augusta, and is retitling its conference rooms to remove the names of past labor leaders. His reason? They might make businessmen uncomfortable. How many such businessmen visit the Labor Department? And how many faint with panic at the sight of a mural that depicts historical scenes from Maine’s labor movement, like women building ships during World War II, and a 1986 paper strike?
Judy Taylor Studio
(pic of removed panels at site)
Panels 8-11 of the Maine Labor Department mural by Judy Taylor
This ranks with the most famous removal of a mural from a public building in America, when John D. and Nelson Rockefeller destroyed a large painting they had themselves commissioned in 1932 from the famous Mexican painter Diego Rivera for their new Rockefeller Center building. Rivera called the painting “Man at the Crossroads,” and he included in the choices facing workers during the Depression a portrait of Lenin. When told he must remove the portrait, he refused, saying the commissioners knew his leftist record when they asked him to do the painting. He said he would balance the portrait with one of Lincoln. After the Rockefellers destroyed his art work in 1934, he recreated it in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, adding a portrait of John D. Rockefeller in a nightclub. The fracas inspired the best satirical poem of the century, by E. B. White. Can anyone match this for the dumb Maine governor?
I Paint What I See
[A Ballad of Artistic Integrity]
“What do you paint, when you paint on a wall?”
Said John D.’s grandson Nelson.
“Do you paint just anything there at all?
“Will there be any doves, or a tree in fall?
“Or a hunting scene, like an English hall?”
“I paint what I see,” said Rivera
“What are the colors you use when you paint?”
Said John D.’s grandson Nelson.
“Do you use any red in the beard of a saint?
“If you do, is it terribly red, or faint?
“Do you use any blue? Is it Prussian?”
“I paint what I paint,” said Rivera
“Whose is that head that I see on my wall?”
Said John D.’s grandson Nelson.
“Is it anyone’s head whom we know at all?
“A Rensselaer or a Saltonstall?
“Is it Franklin D.? Is it Mordaunt Hall?
“Or is it the head of a Russian?”
“I paint what I think,” said Rivera.
“I paint what I paint, I paint what I see,
“I paint what I think,” said Rivera
“And the thing that is dearest in life to me
“In a bourgeois hall is integrity;
However…
“I’ll take out a couple of people drinkin’
“And put in a picture of Abraham Lincoln.
“I could even give you McCormick’s reaper
“And still not make my art much cheaper.
“But the head of Lenin has got to stay
“Or my friends will give me the bird today,
“The bird, the bird, forever.”
“It’s not good taste in a man like me,”
Said John D.s grandson Nelson,
“To question an artist’s integrity
“Or mention a practical thing like a fee.
“But I know what I like to a large degree.
“Though art I hate to hamper,
“For twenty-one thousand conservative bucks
“You painted a radical. I say shucks,
“I never could rent the offices—
“The capitalistic offices.
“For this, as you know, is a public hall,
“And people want doves, or a tree in fall,
“And though your art I dislike to hamper,
“I owe a little to God and Gramper.
“And after all,
“It’s my wall.”
“We’ll see if it is,” said Rivera.
“I Paint What I See” is reprinted with permission of White Literary LLC. (more story at link)NYRBlog
by Gary Willis
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Diego Rivera, detail of Lenin from... more
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This is the trailer for the inspiring new feature length documentary Sylvia Pankhurst: Everything is possible now available on DVD from the charity WORLDwrite. The full film is packed with little-known facts, rare archive imagery, expert interviews and exclusive testimony from Sylvia’s son, Richard Pankhurst and his wife Rita. The campaigns Sylvia led embraced far more than ‘votes for women’ as she uniquely understood the fight for democratic rights required a challenge to the system. For full details visit www.worldwrite.org.uk/sylviapankhurstThis is the trailer for the inspiring new feature length documentary Sylvia Pankhurst:... more
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Stalin said literature was "the handgun of propaganda" but he described the film as his rocket launcher. Dutch journalist Frank Westerman has discovered a film that has been banned by Stalin is now going to be seen for the first time in 75 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8727000/8727703.stmStalin said literature was "the handgun of propaganda" but he described the... more
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You won't believe the connection between Al Gore and Lenin, communism and Russia. The Gore family got their wealth while working with Armand Hammer who was working with Russia. Basically, this was all done through organized crime.You won't believe the connection between Al Gore and Lenin, communism and Russia.... more
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People say you can't compare Obama to Hitler but every day either He or someone in the news attacks religion and Christianity. I'm sorry, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that happen just prior and during every tyrannical takeover in history?People say you can't compare Obama to Hitler but every day either He or someone... more
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Any statue of a man with one hand held out before him at waist height can be photographed in profile in such a way that the extended hand looks like a big ole boner. And Soviet-era statues of Lenin have this posture in spades. Hence this collection on Lenin monuments sporting vast, steely commie-ons.
Are there any examples of this in the UK I wonder? If so, get ‘em posted. According to the article it can also be seen at Disneyland, where Walt and Mickey Mouse are blissfully holding hands. I never did trust that place…(any pics of that would be much appreciated)Any statue of a man with one hand held out before him at waist height can be... more
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Wikipedia is an endless source of delight. Apparently, when Earth Day was first celebrated, it was regarded with suspicion because April 22 was also Vladimir Lenin's birthday. Many thought it was a dirty communist trick, including groups like The Daughters of the American Revolution. However, Lenin wasn't an environmentalist.
Any excuse not to celebrate the earth, embrace anything mildly liberal or be racist, eh, Daughters?Wikipedia is an endless source of delight. Apparently, when Earth Day was first... more
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MOSCOW, Russia — President Dmitry Medvedev gave his first Russian newspaper interview since taking office to most Kremlin-critical publication the Novaya Gazeta twisting the famous “Lenin lived, lives and will live.” saying to “Democracy existed, exists and will be”.MOSCOW, Russia — President Dmitry Medvedev gave his first Russian newspaper... more
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A bronze statue of Lenin, located in St Petersburg, has been bombed, leaving the revolutionary leader with a gaping hole in his behind.A bronze statue of Lenin, located in St Petersburg, has been bombed, leaving the... more
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ClareW
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added this
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3 years ago
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When Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution, died in 1924, his body was mummified and placed on display at the Kremlin wall in Moscow.When Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution, died in 1924, his body... more
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adyen
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added this
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3 years ago
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Just what the world needs, a cola flavored Lenin head pop. Not moved? This company also sells a Sigmund Freud Magic 8 Therapy Ball and a yodeling pickle. Just what the world needs, a cola flavored Lenin head pop. Not moved? This company... more
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jmkatz
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added this
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3 years ago
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