Rivera Washout

The mural that Mexico's Diego Rivera painted down the sides and across the bottom of the distribution chamber of Mexico City's Lerma River water system (TIME, June 4, 1951) was a wonder to behold the day it was dedicated almost five years ago. Painted around the water's edge were giant-sized symbols of Mexico's people, their past oppressors and future hopes; beneath the water was an intricate pattern of teeming protoplasmic life. Rivera confidently predicted that his water-washed mural, Water, Origin of Life, painted with a mixture of plastic polystyrene in the fresco pigment, then varnished with transparent rubber, was good for 40 years at least.

Two years later the first signs of decomposition were noted. By this week it was clear that Rivera's mural was a wash out. Mexico's National Restoration Institute, after six months of vain attempts to save it, announced that it was abandoning the rapidly deteriorating mural to the ravages of running water and sediment. Rivera, in seclusion in Acapulco, was unavailable for discussion of the decision. But old rival and fellow Communist, David Siqueiros, was glad to oblige: "When Diego started painting this mural, I told him that polystyrene, like any other paint, was not going to resist water for even two years. I advised Rivera to use mosaic, but Diego paid no attention to me." The real blame, of course, could be traced to the capitalist paintmakers who have refused to develop a truly waterproof paint. Said Siqueiros: "The truth is that the capitalist world has not done anything to solve this important problem."

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