Wu Hufan

Wu Hufan, Celebrate the success of Our Glorious Atomic Bomb Explosion! , 1965


China exploded its first atomic bomb in October 1964, staking its claim to koin United States ( nuclear-armed from 1945 ) and the Soviet Union ( from 1949 ).The beauty, or sublime grandeur, ofthe mushroom clouds that heralded the age of MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction was often celebrated in contemporary writing, less often in visual art.

Julian Bell, A New history of Art