Group D – Framing: Art and Furniture Restoration

American Progress and Time, murals in the lobby of the GE Building, by Josep Maria Sert.

Rockefeller Center features more than 100 pieces of original art. When Rockefeller Center was constructed, Rockefeller hired Mexican socialist artist (and husband of Frida Kahlo) Diego Rivera to paint a mural in the lobby of the building. This mural was later destroyed when Rockefeller found out that Rivera had included a portrait of communist leader Lenin. Rivera’s mural was replaced with a mural titled America’s Progress by artist José María Sert.

The Spanish Catalan artist Josep Maria Sert, titled American Progress, depicting a vast allegorical scene of men constructing modern America, replaced the Center with a stunning, larger mural. It contains the figures of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and it is wrapped around the west wall of the Grand Lobby at 30 Rock.