‘Echoes of Hiroshima,’ an art exhibition of Soviet artist Alexander Labas, is being held at the Oriental State Museum in Moscow.
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In the 1950s, Soviet artist Alexander Labas, a former student of Russian avant-garde artist
Kazimir Malevich and legendary abstract art painter
Wassily Kandinsky, began working on a series of watercolor paintings to depict the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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The ‘Echoes of Hiroshima’ series focuses on the aftereffects of the U.S. atomic bombing of the two cities.
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The exhibition, organized by Alice Labas, the granddaughter of the Soviet artist, also features 23 watercolor paintings that were never displayed in public before.
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The paintings depict the trauma suffered by survivors and illnesses caused by radiation.
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“The Soviet government did not order this series (every Soviet artist was a member of an art union, which officially got orders from the government),” says Alice Labas. “He never thought these works would be on public display. He started working on the paintings in 1957, and after almost 15 years, returned to the studio to finish the series.”
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“The artist was a participant in the defense of Moscow. He knew exactly what the air bombardment of a city means,” says Mlada Homutova, curator of the exhibition.
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The Russian artist’s paintings serve as a grim reminder of the destructive power of nuclear weapons.
