Red and Black (U.S.S. Nevada)

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Red and Black (U.S.S. Nevada)
Red and Black (U.S.S. Nevada)
Artist/Maker (American, 1906 - 1978)
Date1949
MediumScreenprint
DimensionsComposition: 12 5/16 in. × 16 in. (31.3 × 40.6 cm) Sheet: 17 1/4 × 23 1/4 in. (43.8 × 59.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of James Taylor Dunn, Class of 1936
Object number1990.11
Not on view
DescriptionFortune magazine sent Ralston Crawford to Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1946 to document Test Able, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Detonated on July 1, 1946, Crawford witnessed the bomb miss its target, the U.S.S. Nevada, which had been painted red-orange to enhance its visibility and was damaged, but not destroyed. The battleship was subsequently used for Test Baker, an underwater detonation, which also failed to hit its target. The artist based this screenprint on two ink studies and a painting that he had made of the wreckage of the ship, the latter of which was reproduced in Fortune's December 1946 issue.
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Additional Details

Alternate Titles Red and Black
U.S.S. Nevada
Provenance 1990: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of James Taylor Dunn.
Markings Marks: none noted.
Published References "Acquisitions" in FRIENDS OF ART NEWSLETTER (Clinton, NY: Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, 1991).
Signature Signed and dated "Ralston Crawford, 1949" at lower right in pencil.
Inscribed "Red and Black" at lower left in pencil.
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