This thesis explores Ralston Crawford’s canvases painted after witnessing the events of Operation Crossroads at the Bikini Atoll in 1946. Commissioned by Fortune, the artist provides the viewer with a unique and captivating view of the destruction wrought by atomic weaponry. Through a careful look at Crawford’s relationship with Fortune, Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery, and Crawford’s artistic contemporaries, this thesis positions the paintings within the art historical and cultural context of the mid-twentieth century and asserts their importance to the history of the Atomic Age. The thesis traces Crawford’s artistic development and his use of an Americanized Cubist language. In addition, the thesis looks closely at the rich cultural fabric of the postwar era and evaluates Crawford’s position in the American Art scene. / text

Michal Ulvr Abstract It was the near-end of the Second World War, which defined the popular reception of the Atomic bomb for upcoming decade. In the first year of the nuclear monopoly, the feeling of uncertainty and fear of death in the nuclear war was not yet present in strength. The mood of relative safety dominated the American society till the fall of the monopoly in 1949. Since the first atomic explosion occurred in the USSR, the atmosphere of fear, that never faded back and was latent since August and September 1945, made an exuberant appearance in press and other media. Suddenly, the American government made (after years of neglect) a great effort to calm down the uncertainty of the public. A Federal Civil Defense Administration was established at the end of 1950 and provided more or less useful information, propaganda, material and logistical support for a war with the Soviet Union, which was expected to come sooner or later. Plenty of educational and propaganda pamphlets, books and training films were produced in determination to make it clear, that survival under nuclear attack was possible. And indeed, at that time, there was even a good chance, that keeping some basic survival rules in mind an individual could come out of a nuclear attack relatively unscathed. Administration even tried to...