Diego Rivera signed a contract with the Founders Society of The Detroit Institute of Arts in June of 1932 for a large fresco project entitled Detroit Industry. The project was funded by Edsel Ford. The murals were dedicated in March of 1933 amidst some controversy, ranging from accusations of Communist content and sacrilegious portrayals to the unsuitability of industrial subject matter for a museum setting.

Rivera drew upon Cubism, pre-Columbian imagery, and his own interest in the machine aesthetic to create this remarkable series of frescos as a tribute to industrial advancement and the workers of Detroit. The Gallery's study portrays the production of the body of the 1932 Ford V-8 at the Company's Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. The drawing is inscribed "To the students of Professor Will S Taylor in Brown University. Diego Rivera. Mexico City, 1935." A smaller charcoal drawing of the same subject is in the Leeds City Art Gallery, England.