Tuesday, April 8, 2025 - 5:00pm to 8:00pm
108 Frick Fine Arts
Isaiah Bertagnolli
This dissertation examines the works of five artists deeply involved in the cause of nuclear disarmament from a period of c. 1945-1990. I contrast the pro-disarmament modernism of Martyl Langsdorf (designer of the Doomsday Clock and arts editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) with the antinuclear artworks of Sharon Gilbert, Barbara Donachy, Cheri Gaulke, and Jack Malotte (Western Shoshone/Washoe). I consider a range of artistic strategies from landscape painting, artist books, sculpture, performance, installation, and protest posters and events. I suggest that these artists made the arms race personal by inviting viewers to project themselves in landscapes devastated by the nuclear fuel cycle, and I show how the latter four facilitated, or sought to facilitate, social action through their artwork.
Committee members: Alex J. Taylor (chair), Jennifer Josten, Terry Smith, and Melissa Ragain.