The Main Court at the DIA, c. 1929.
Detroiters, visitors and art lovers from around the world adore Diego Rivera’s frescoes at the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA); Rivera Court is a treasure by any standard. Rivera created this masterpiece in 1932-33, so you’d have to be around 90 years of age today to remember how the court looked before he arrived. That’s where this great postcard from the DHS collection comes into play. This is what Rivera saw when he arrived; the artwork for two walls (pictured here right and left) were all he was originally commissioned to create. But once he saw the space, he envisioned so much more, with frescoes climbing up all four walls to the ceiling. (Fortunately, his benefactors Edsel Ford and DIA Director William Valentiner agreed with his vision and funded it in full.) It’s quite amazing to see how “empty” this old court looks now, knowing what it looks like now. To Rivera, it must have appeared as a huge canvas just waiting for him and his brushes.
