Five Controversial Murals

We all know that some of the best art is controversial, but these five murals might be crossing the line. Or are they? Read up on these works of art and decide for yourself whether they warrented alteration or removal.

Denver International Airport (DIA)

Those of us biding our layover time at DIA will miss the most controversial murals to ever grace the walls of a baggage claim. Some of the murals have now been painted over, but they did include a city on fire, dead children and women in coffins, a military-type guy stabbing a dove and other disturbing stuff. Some conspiracy theorists say the murals were commissioned by the Masonic society to show what will happen to the population and the environment when the world allegedly ends in 2012.

photo by Flickr user Mash Down Babylon

One man has written more than 20 books explaining how the world is controlled by reptile-like aliens, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II and… Kris Kristofferson? Yep. According to him, the murals how the reptilians when they finally take over the world. Furthermore, the tunnels underneath the airport house human slaves, even children, who are controlled by the reptilians. According to the artist, Leo Tanguma, it's really just a mural that "depict man-made environmental destruction and genocide along with humanity coming together to heal nature and live in peace."

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort

Rumors about the dark side of Disney are certainly not lacking, so it's not surprising to find one that says the company purposely had an artist paint a Nazi into a mural at one of their swankiest hotels.

photo from Snopes.com

In the book Sabotage in the American Workplace, an anonymous man claims that his company was hired to paint a scene at the Grand Floridian that depicted something similar to the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The artist wanted to make a statement that while the rich folks were enjoying their parties and cocktails, sinister things were happening in the rest of the world. The thing is, the figure the man claims is a Nazi doesn't have any really distinguishing Nazi characteristics, so all we can really do is take him at his word. You can decide for yourself.

San Francisco's Mission District

Photo from muzzlewatch.com

This mural in San Fran has caused a huge rift among many citizens in the Mission district. The mural shows Palestinians breaking through the Israeli wall, with a large crack in the wall shaped like the country of Israel. The organization that received a grant to paint the mural, HOMEY (Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth) said the mural was intended to show the two sides uniting. In order to make the mural more neutral, the agreed to reshape the crack in the wall so it doesn't represent Israel, add an olive tree to symbolize peace and remove a headscarf from a woman's face.

Twelve Labors of Hercules

When muralist Michael Spafford created "Twelve Labors of Hercules" for Washington's House of Representatives chambers in 1981, he didn't know he would cause such a divide. The murals were up for barely a year before they were covered with plywood after complains that the paintings were offensive.

Photo from Centralia.edu The murals show some of the feats Hercules accomplished, including one where he kills the Amazon queen Hippolyta. One Representative felt the depiction was a glorification of rape. The murals are now on display at Centralia College in Centralia, Washington, much to the chagrin of Michael Spafford, who says the mural would only look right in the space he created it for.

Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future/Man Controller of the Universe

Photo from fbuch.com

It seems like a crime to destroy a mural painted by one of Mexico's most famous artists, Diego Rivera, but Nelson A. Rockefeller didn't really have a problem with it. He commissioned Rivera to paint a mural on the RCA center in 1933 and requested that it be about "new frontiers" and that it would be an image that would make people stop and think. Rivera created Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future, a scene that juxtaposed workers and capitalism and industry. Some of the people portrayed included Charlie Chaplin, Edsel Ford, Vladimir Lenin and Jean Harlow. The Rockefellers hated the representation of Lenin. Rivera refused to change it (although he did offer to balance it by adding Abraham Lincoln to represent an American leader) so the mural was covered up entirely until it Rockefeller had it chiseled away. In response, Rivera painted a pretty exact replica of Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future in Mexico City, but titled this one Man Controller of the Universe. I would say that Rivera got the last laugh.