Focus on Pan American Unity and explain the Theme.
The formal title of the piece, as given by Rivera is Unión de la Expresión Artistica del Norte y Sur de este Continente (The Marriage of the Artistic Expression of the North and of the South on this Continent) , but it is more commonly referred to as Pan American Unity. During a 1940 interview Diego Rivera was quoted as saying,
"I believe in order to make an American art, a real American art, this will be necessary, this blending of the art of the Indian, the Mexican, the Eskimo, with the kind of urge which makes the machine, the invention in the material side of life, which is also an artistic urge, the same urge primarily but in a different form of expression."
He later elaborated "American art has to be the result of a conjunction between the creative mechanism of the North and the creative power of the South coming from the traditional deep-rooted Southern Indian forms." Rivera felt that artists in North America should be inspired by New World native arts, especially as Europe was plunging back into war; Roland J. McKinney was quoted as saying "If Europe blows up and destroys its cultural heritage, the Americas can turn for inspiration to their own, indigenous art, the art that predates Columbus." The imagery is a comprehensive marriage of the themes of Mexican artistry and US technology in Pan-American Unity.The mural included the images of his wife, Frida Kahlo, woodcarver Dudley C. Carter, and himself, planting a tree and holding the hand of actress Paulette Goddard. Timothy L. Pflueger is depicted holding the architectural plans for the planned Pflueger Library.
Dudley C. Carter Paulette Goddard Timothy L. Pflueger Frida Kahlo Diego Rivera