The Controversy at Rockefeller Center: Phantom Publics, Aesthetic Barbarians

Abstract

This article investigates the Rivera controversy at Rockefeller Center arguing that the controversy illuminates tensions in democratic culture over the role of the masses and their relation to the “legitimate” public, exhibited in anxieties about phantom publics and barbarian crowds. Beginning with critical discourse surrounding the construction of Rockefeller Center, the mural controversy is resituated within a broader frame in which revanchist anxieties and worry about mass media play a crucial role. Appeals during the construction of the building to the “public” character of the structure took on a life of their own during the apex of the Rivera controversy.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you to Dave Tell, the anonymous reviewers, and the attendees of the 2012 ASHR meeting who provided helpful feedback. Thanks to my advisor, Robert Hariman, and colleagues J. Daniel Elam and Paul E. Johnson, for reading and commenting on later copies of this manuscript. Finally, thanks to Susana Pliego for sharing her expertise on the controversy, and the archives, and to the archivists at INBA, Cenediap, Casa Azul, the Rockefeller Family Archives, and the Rockefeller Center Archives.