Panel 4: Trends of Creative Effort in the United States and the Rise of Woman in Various Fields of Creative Endeavor through Her Use of the Power of Manmade Machinery
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Helen Crlenklovich continues to balance the right side of the mural, as her dive flows above the Treasure Island, the setting of the Golden Gate exposition.
Rivera wrote:
"The creative force of the United States and the emancipation of women were symbolized by a woman artist, a woman architect, and a sculptress.
"In the lower part of this panel, I represented two scenes from that typical art form of the North, the movies. One was from Charlie Chaplin's film The Great Dictator, showing in a tragicomic grouping Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin; the other from the Edward G. Robinson film Confessions of a Nazi Spy. Both works dramatized the fight between the democracies and the totalitarian powers. A hand rose up out of a machine as if to ward off the forces of aggression, symbolizing the American conscience reacting to the threat against freedom, in the love of which the history of Mexico and the United States were united.”
Rivera was an avid movie fan. He saw movies as a type of modern day fresco, an art form that could carry important political messages to the masses.
