Icons from the Age of Anxiety: The "Fat Man" Atomic Bomb

When I was in Rogers Park elementary school in the early sixties, a couple of the guys in my class loved to draw detailed pencil diagrams of "Fat Man" again and again. They always took great care on perspective of the tail fins. Their love for the image of this terrible bomb always made me feel a little queasy. I used to have the occasional recurring A-bomb nightmare, and the infamous "duck and cover" school drills didn't help quell my nuclear angst....

The Fat Man atomic bomb can be found at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

On August 9th, 1945, a second atom bomb was dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender during World War II.

The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender.

The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man,” on August 11 in the event of such recalcitrance, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th.

At 1:56 a.m., a specially adapted B-29 bomber, called “Bock’s Car,” after its usual commander, Frederick Bock, took off from Tinian Island under the command of Maj. Charles W. Sweeney.

Nagasaki was a shipbuilding center, the very industry intended for destruction. The bomb was dropped at 11:02 a.m., 1,650 feet above the city. The explosion unleashed the equivalent force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The hills that surrounded the city did a better job of containing the destructive force, but the number killed is estimated at anywhere between 60,000 and 80,000 (exact figures are impossible, the blast having obliterated bodies and disintegrated records).

General Leslie R. Groves, the man responsible for organizing the Manhattan Project, which solved the problem of producing and delivering the nuclear explosion, estimated that another atom bomb would be ready to use against Japan by August 17 or 18 -- but it was not necessary.

Though the War Council still remained divided (“It is far too early to say that the war is lost,” opined the Minister of War), Emperor Hirohito, by request of two War Council members eager to end the war, met with the Council and declared that “continuing the war can only result in the annihilation of the Japanese people….” The Emperor of Japan gave his permission for unconditional surrender.

This bomb doesn’t explode -- it implodes.  Inside the bomb is a central core of Plutonium 239 and formed around that core is a soccer ball-like shaped charge of alternating fast and slow burning detonators.  When it detonates the "soccer ball" collapses in on the plutonium core compressing it until it implodes.

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.

The first appearance of the Doomsday Clock on the June 1947 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Icons From The Age of Anxiety: Nuclear Power Plant Disasters



The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Reactor 1 to 4 from left to right.



The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor after the disaster. Reactor 4 (center). Turbine building (lower left). Reactor 3 (center right).



TMI personnel cleaning up the contaminated auxiliary building — 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident.

Today's Chernobyl Exclusion Zone:

An area extending 19 miles (31 km) in all directions from the plant is known as the "zone of alienation." It is largely uninhabited, except for a few residents who have refused to leave. The area has largely reverted to forest. Even today, radiation levels are so high that the workers responsible for rebuilding the sarcophagus are only allowed to work five hours a day for one month before taking 15 days of rest. Ukrainian officials estimate the area will not be safe for human life again for another 20,000 years.

Icons From the Age of Anxiety: Famous "Daisy" Attack Ad from 1964 Presidential Election

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTBnsqxZ3k

Icons From the Age of Anxiety: Pablo Picasso's Guernica

Pablo Picasso, Guernica, Oil on canvas, 349 cm × 776 cm (137.4 in × 305.5 in), 1937

Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.


This work is seen as an amalgmation of pastoral and epic styles. The discarding of color intensifis the drama, producing a reportage quality as in a photographic record. Guernica is blue, black and white, 3.5 metre (11 ft) tall and 7.8 metre (25.6 ft) wide, a mural-size canvas painted in oil. This painting can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.
Interpretations of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. This extends, for example, to the mural's two dominant elements: the bull and the horse. Art historian Patricia Failing said, "The bull and the horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso himself certainly used these characters to play many different roles over time. This has made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of the bull and the horse very tough. Their relationship is a kind of ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout Picasso's career."

Some critics warn against trusting the polital message in Guernica. For instance the rampaging bull, a major motif of destruction here, has previouse figured, whether as a bull or Minotaur, as Picasso' ego. However, in this instance the bull probably represents the onslaught of Fascism. Picasso said it meant brutality and darkness, presumably reminiscent of his prophetic. He also stated that the horse represented the people of Guernica.

Icons From the Age of Anxiety: Max Beckmann "The King"

Max Beckmann, The King, 1934-37, oil on canvas,53.25 x 39.25 in., St. Louis Art Museum

Stephan Lackner writes:

"The crowned king sits in his palace, in Oriental splendor, proudly erect, surrounded by two women. The young, beautiful lady on the left seems utterly trustful and loving as she puts her right arm over his thigh and fondles his left arm. The older, dark woman whispers conspiratorial advice into his ear; her cowl gives her an air of intrigue and secrecy, and her left hand is pushed forward in a gesture of warning or rejection, apparently contradicting the naive, friendly creature on the other side of the monarch. The young blonde has his love, no doubt, but the older woman "has the king's ear." The king weighs the two influences silently. There is a strange, portentous atmosphere in the palace chamber. When will he arise and proclaim his decision?

"The king's features are akin to Beckmann's own, although no formal self-portrait may have been intended. The collar with its triangular flaps has the shape the artist usually assigned to clown and harlequin costumes, so we may suspect that the ominous scene is really just part of a play.

"Beckmann worked on The King for a long time. He must have considered it already finished in 1934, for he had it photographed in Berlin, three years before his emigration. He submitted it to the Carnegie International, where it was exhibited in the European section, in San Francisco, in 1934-35, and illustrated in the Carnegie catalogue. The painting did not win a prize. Disappointed, Beckmann changed the first version considerably and finally signed it in Amsterdam in 1937. This history of the painting is important because some commentators have seen allusions to the "despot" of the day and claim that this was the first painting that Beckmann created in exile. But the resemblance to Beckmann himself precludes any reference to the actual tyrant. No-this is the inner drama of a proud, powerful, benign individual.

"In the first version, the base of the column at the right edge of the painting resembled the bases of the columns of Persepolis. Beckmann at the time was immersed in studies of Tel Halaf, and Assyrian and Babylonian lore. This localization of the scene gave way, in the final version, to a more general, luxurious background. Also, the profile of the warning, plotting confidante is more expressive, and the texture of the final canvas is more varied and decisive. On the whole, we can thank the Carnegie judges of 1934 for awarding the prize to Karl Hofer and not to Beckmann. Their action caused Beckmann to dig even deeper into his subconscious, to explore his own myth."

Icons from the Age of Anxiety: George Grosz

George Grosz, Beauty, Thee I Praise, watercolor, pen and Indian ink, 1919, 42 x 30.3 cm.

Georg Ehrenfried Gross was born on 26 July 1893 in Berlin into the family of Karl Ehrenfried Gross, an innkeeper, and his wife Marie Wilhelmine Luise. When the boy was only seven years old his father died. Together with his mother he lived alternately in Berlin and Stolp in Pomerania, where Georg started secondary school in 1902. In 1908 he was expelled from school for having returned a trainee teacher's blow.  

After passing the entrance exam he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Art in Dresden. While in the Academy he specialized in graphic art and started to co-operate with satirical magazines as early as 1910. In 1912 Grosz (then Gross) joined the graphic art course at the College of Arts and Crafts in Berlin. In 1913 he spent several months in Paris at Colarossi's studio. The main subjects of his drawings of the period are crimes and orgies, erotic subjects; his cartoons find publication in "Ulk", "Lustige Blätter" and other periodicals. He also did his first book illustrations and began painting in oils.  

With the outbreak of the First World War he volunteered, but was discharged from the army several months later following a surgical operation. During this period in Berlin Gross met various authors, artists and intellectuals, among them those with whom he would found the Berlin Dada in 1917. 

 In 1916 the artist in protest against nationalism and patriotism altered his name to George Grosz. The same year he painted the earliest of his oils known, among them Lovesick and Suicide and a year later he published his first two albums, the "Erste George Grosz Mappe" and "Kleine Grosz Mappe".  

Following the revolution in Russia, an artists' association, the "November Group" was established in Berlin in 1918, and Grosz joined it, soon after becoming a member of the Communist Party. In 1919, with the publisher Wieland Herzfelde (of Malik Publishing House), he started a magazine called "Die Pleite", and collaborated with Franz Jung on "Jedermann sein eigener Fussball" (Everybody his own football) and with John Hoexter and Carl Einstein on "Der blutige Ernst" (The bloody seriousness).

His drawings, tartly critical of bourgeois society, appeared in various Malik publications; the artist also produced portfolios and books, which regularly aroused scandals.  

In 1921 his album "Gott mit uns" (God with us) brought Grosz charges of defaming the Reichswehr (army); in 1924 he was prosecuted for offences against public morality by his album "Ecce Homo" (the album was confiscated as being pornographic); in 1928 for his drawing "Shut up and keep serving the cause" he was accused of blasphemy. All these scandals only helped consolidate his fame. 

 In 1924 the artist became chairman of the artists' association "Rote Gruppe" (Red Group); until 1927 he was a regular contributor to Communist publications. In 1928 he was co-founder of the "Association Revolutionärer Bildender Künstler Deutschlands" (German Association of Revolutionary Artists).  

Grosz's works of the 1920s were influenced by a complicated political and economical situation in the post-war Germany and Europe and in one sentence can be characterized as political and social satire. He himself wrote about that time: "Everywhere, hymns of hatred were struck up. Everyone was hated: the Jews, the capitalists, the Junkers, the Communists, the army, the property owners, the workers, the unemployed, the black Reichwehr, the control commissions, the politicians, the department stores, and the Jews again. It was an orgy of incitement, and the republic itself was a weak thing, scarcely perceptible. … It was a completely negative world, topped with colorful froth that many imagined to be true, happy Germany before the onset of the new barbarism." 

In 1932, invited to lecture to the Arts Student League in NY, Grosz visited the USA, and the following year emigrated there together with his wife and two sons. In the USA he resumed teaching with the Art Students League in NY. In the USA both his works and behavior changed radically – no more attacks on society, the artist's commitment to the class struggle was gone.

This resignation was not sincere; in his autobiography, "Ein kleiness Ja und ein Grosses Nein" (A Small Yes and a Big No), Grosz later wrote: "My motto was now to give offence to none and be pleasing to all. Assimilation is straightforward once one overcomes the greatly overvalued superstition concerning character. To have character generally means that one is distinctly inflexible, not necessarily for reasons of age. Anyone who plans to get ahead and make money would do well to have no character at all. The second rule for fitting in is to think everything beautiful! Everything – that is to say, including things that are not beautiful in reality."

Only once he lost control, when he learnt about the death of a friend in a concentration camp. He published anti-fascist album "Interregnum", which was not a success, moreover met criticism, since Americans did not see any danger in fascism at the time and the artist's pictures seemed an absurd exaggeration.
 
Grosz taught at the Art Students League till 1936. He also had a private art school, his students were mainly society ladies. From 1937 to 1939 he was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, which enabled him to devote time to his own work. He was not rich, but he got by comfortably. In 1938 Grosz was stripped of his German citizenship, numerous of his works
were burnt by the Nazis.  

In 1954 Grosz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1958 to the Academy of Fine Arts of Germany. His last works in America were collages, which partly recall his Dada period and partly were influenced by Pop Art.

In 1959 Grosz returned to Berlin for good, and only a month later he died there, in his house.

Icons from the Age of Anxiety: Salvador Dali

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1952/54
Salvador Dali

Icons From the Age of Anxiety: Patricia Krentcil "The Tanorexic Mom"

It's believed she spends $99/month for unlimited access to tanning bads, but back in the day, Patricia Krentcil (the Tanorexic Mom from New Jersey) was trying to get into glamour modeling. She's just released some pics before her addiction to tanning began.

The New Jersey woman who has denied charges she allowed her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth has gained national attention for her own increasingly copper complexion, prompting a suggestion that she suffers from "tanerexia."

Patricia Krentcil, known as the "tanning mom," is facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted of second-degree child endangerment. Child services intervened after a nurse at daughter Anna's school noticed she had a rash and the little girl told her it was from going tanning with her mother.

The owner of City Tropics tanning salon in Nutley, N.J., who only identified himself as Anthony, said Krentcil pays a flat fee of about $100 per month for unlimited tanning sessions, and that she tans about 20 times per month, roughly five days per week. The owner added that Krentcil does the maximum time of 12 minutes in a standup booth.
Her attorney, John Caruso, said Krentcil, 44, wants people to stop judging her by the way she looks, and says that she is a loving mother that would never hurt her kids. Anna is in her father's custody.

Anthony said that employees who were there on the day in question told him that Anna remained outside with her father and brother, and didn't go into the tanning booth while Krentcil was inside.

"I never once in my life let me daughter, especially at that age, go into a tanning booth," Krentcil, who is out on $25,000 bail, explained, adding, "I'm very tan and I've been tanning my whole life."

Concern is growing that the woman might have her own problem now that she has appeared on national television. A comparison of the mug shot taken of her Monday with interview footage of her skin, which was an even deeper bronze when she sat down for a Tuesday night interview, has left cause for concern.

"When you look at this, this is somebody who has a problem who most likely has a condition called "tanerexia," where they just don't realize just how much color they have," New York dermatologist Doris Day said. "She's at higher risk for skin cancer, and it also doesn't send the right message to her child."

Krentcil maintains that her daughter's burn was from the sun -- from a day spent gardening -- and not from a tanning bed.

"It's very wrong to presume something that didn't happen, because it didn't happen," Krentcil said, adding that after she gained national exposure, "all of a sudden like I was a murderer."

Her husband, Richard Krentcil, has said that Anna never entered a tanning bed.

"They wrote the story saying Patricia took her into the tanning booth, [that] they were tanning together," he said. "Totally false."

Krentcil's lawyer adds that he does not believe she is addicted to tanning.
"
Obviously, she tans," Caruso said. "To call her an addict, I think is a real leap. It feels like it's being exaggerated, to be like, 'Well look at her, she must have done this.'

Icons From the Age of Anxiety: Edvard Munch's "The Scream"



Anxiety pays! Edvard Munch, Skrik, 1893; Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard
Dimensions 91 cm × 73.5 cm (36 in × 28.9 in) National Gallery, Oslo, Norway. God knows what this version is worth!



The Scream (Norwegian: Skrik) is the popular name given to each of four versions of a composition, created as both paintings and pastels, by the Expressionist artist Edvard Munch between 1893 and 1910. Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature) is the title Munch gave to these works, all of which show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a tumultuous red sky. The landscape in the background is the Oslofjord, viewed from Ekeberg, Oslo, Norway.

Edvard Munch created the four versions in various media. The National Gallery, Oslo, holds one of two painted versions. The Munch Museum holds the other painted version (1910) and a pastel version from 1893.

The fourth version (pastel, 1895) sold for $119,922,500 at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art auction on 2 May 2012 to financier Leon Black, the highest nominal price paid for a painting at auction. (The Card Players by Paul Cézanne was sold privately in 2011 for between $250-300 million.)

Also in 1895, Munch created a lithograph stone of the image. Of the lithograph prints produced by Munch, several examples survive. Only approximately four dozen prints were made before the original stone was resurfaced by the printer in Munch's absence.

The Scream has been the target of several high-profile art thefts. In 1994, the version in the National Gallery was stolen. It was recovered several months later. In 2004, both The Scream and Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum, and recovered two years later.

The world's highest priced cartoonist, Edvard Munch (1863-1944).