Curator, Leah DIckerman: Rockefeller Center wasn’t such an easy commission for Rivera to get. There’s some sense that while Abby and Nelson were great champions of Rivera painting a mural in the lobby of the RCA building, Abby’s husband, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was less interested. And he and the project architects solicited Matisse and Picasso to submit designs. Picasso never responded and Matisse declined. So that left Rivera.
Rivera was keen to have that kind of showcase for his work, in a major New York site, and this was intended to be the greatest, most monumental of all civic construction projects.
David Rockefeller, Jr. The commission ended with Rivera's mural being removed from the walls. The controversy is often attributed to Rivera's addition of a portrait of Vladimir Lenin to the murals. But Communist imagery may have only been partly to blame for Rivera’s dismissal, as my father has recounted.
Leah Dickerman: David Rockefeller suggested that it was the image of his father drinking gin and hanging out with these women shown in low-cut gowns.
The Rockefeller family were Baptists. They were a teetotaling family. They had been among the greatest supporters for the Anti-Saloon League that was responsible for bringing about Prohibition legislation. So showing him drinking alcohol was a particularly pointed jab.