Curator, Leah Dickerman: The most prominent buildings that you see in this constructed view of the city are these three big blocks at the front. Now, starting on the right, if you look at the bluish building, that’s the McGraw Hill building, and then mirroring it on the left is the Daily News building. At the very center, towering over this pair is Rockefeller Center itself.
These buildings were all designed by Raymond Hood.
Rockefeller Center emerges as an important theme within these fresco panels. In 1932, when this fresco is made, it’s under construction, and Rivera is most likely working from images of the model that he has seen.
Rivera’s choice of giving Raymond Hood’s buildings such prominence in this composition probably has multiple motivations, but one of them was clearly that he was eager to secure a commission for a mural in the lobby of the Rockefeller Center Radio City building.
David Rockefeller, Jr.: While he was in New York, Rivera regularly met with my grandmother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. She was a champion of modern art, and a driving force in founding this Museum. In fact, she went so far as to convert the nursery on the top floor of her 54th street townhouse into a space for exhibiting her collection. She encouraged my grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to commission Rivera to paint a mural in the RCA building at Rockefeller Center.