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The Arts Intel Report

Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace

Peter Kennard, Protect and Survive, 1980.

Mar 13 – Sept 7, 2025
119 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011, United States

“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” This quote, paraphrased from the Bhagavad Gita, came to the mind of J. Robert Oppenheimer as he watched the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, on July 16, 1945. The world has witnessed that obliterating power twice in warfare: first in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, and then three days later, in Nagasaki. Both bombs were dropped by the United States. Over 100,000 died on the days of the bombings, with countless more dead from radiation in the months and years that followed. Since then, these weapons have become a significant geopolitical and existential concern. An exhibition of posters that both protest and promote the use of nuclear weaponry demonstrates the complex relationship between humankind and a technology that can only bring self-destruction. —Jack Sullivan

Photo courtesy of Poster House