Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)
STURCZ János: Maróti Géza pályaműve a Rockefeller Centerhez
the help of sound waves (information conveyed by radio), which inexplicably end in flames. There are twelve female figures flying from the focus to the borders of the picture, alluding perhaps to a mass Annunciation or to the death angels of the Last Judgement. In a rather peculiar way, not even resembling to the traditional scholasticgrouping, they embody the „scicnces" that are to inspire mankind. (Religion, Drama, Music, Journalism, Politics and Poetry appears on the side of Written words, while Physics, Biology, Sports, Philosophy, Hygiene and the Media stand with Spoken words.) The other pieces decorating the Center also sing the praises of intelligence; like Paul Manship's flying Prometheus statne in the centre of the RC, which holds the torch of intelligence (picture 6) or the figure of Wisdom in Lee Lawrie's glass relief which decorates the main entrance of the central building (picture 7). The figure, recalling Blake's Creator, measures the frontiers of the world with a pair of compasses. The tribute to reason, so much emphasized by these works is in fact a tribute to the sponsors, since they are the ones who finance science and radio (i.e. propagators of its achievements); they arc the ones who build hyper-rational skyscrapers. The works of art mentioned above closely followed the part of the Bible which was quoted in Alexander's program (The Book of Proverbs, VIII 27-29). Indeed, Lawrie had inscribed the quotation referring to the power of intelligence present at all times and places. Moreover, he interpreted the quotation on the pictures on cither side of „Wisdom" as if it referred to expanding cognition with the help of telecommunications. (The topic of Maróti's design was the same; the resemblance of the motifs suggest that he had used the same programme when making the plan.) 14 True to the spirit of the program, the choice of the artists was made with great care. At first they wanted to ask Picasso and Matisse to paint the huge and infantile panes decorating the lobby of the main building. Rockefeller and his company did not really like or understand modernism, yet they thought these pieces would help to realize the desired „avantgárdé image" and consequently, good publicity. The two artists flatly refused the commission, so it was given to reliable but not very talented academic artists, who followed the regulations of the programme most faithfully. 15 (The choice was assisted by the most conservative contemporary art historians, who, occupying high positions, were members of the Art Counselling Commission.) MARÓTI IN AMERICA Maróti worked in the United States from January 1926 to July 1932. His favourite idea of a sports-exhibition-university city in Lágymányos, a district of Budapest, which he was planning in the early twenties, seemed to have misfired; at that time it was difficult to obtain any commission at all. So he accepted Eliel Saarinnen's invitation to Cranbrook School (Bloomsflcld Hills), near Detroit, since Saarinnen was an old friend of his, and by that time an accepted artist in the USA. Maróti's task was to decorate the buildings of the arts college (planned by Saarinnen) with stone reliefs and statues. 16 This college was later regarded as a cradle for American design. Maróti's works were extremely successful and led to several other commissions; thus, in the beginning of 1929 he left Cranbrook School and organized an exhibition in the Institute of Arts in Detroit. He was elected a member of the Michigan Society of Architects in the same year. He also started to work with Albert Kahn, one of
