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Russian Bomb (Semipalatinsk)-Robert Longo-1

Combining astounding visual presence with threatening physical power, Robert Longo here explores an object of fascination and control by depicting the induced event – sublime and atrocious at once – in minute detail. In doing so, the artist has masterfully captured the tension encapsulating one of the most complicated and emotionally charged subjects of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: nuclear weapons. The forever frozen image of the moment of the bomb’s detonation parallels Longo’s renderings of crashing waves, for in both he concentrates the essence of an uncontrollable and dangerous nature into a single image.

“ I stumbled on the bombs. I remember showing my kids a picture of Nagasaki, and I asked them what it was. They thought it was a weather effect. „

Robert Longo