The Family of Man in Japan: A Photographic Exhibition for World Peace and Atomic Culture in the 1950s

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J Muu elektroninen julkaisu
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2020

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en

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Pages 44-55

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POPULAR INQUIRY: The Journal of the Aesthetics of Kitsch, Camp and Mass Culture, 1/2020

Abstract

The ambitious exhibition The Family of Man, which made the popular culture of press photography an American modern art, is well known for touring around fifty countries during the Cold War and attracting nine million people. As a path-breaking case of the globalization of art exhibitions, historical studies on its reception in each country are ongoing. This paper reconsidered the Japan tour of The Family of Man between 1956 and 1957. It is noteworthy that it attracted one million visitors in a country and that the immediate removal of some photographs of the atomic bombing on Nagasaki, which were specially added to the installation, caused controversy. This paper investigated the press and criticisms on the removal and characterized the reception of The Family of Man in Japan: it was in cultural tensions between the aspirations for nuclear energy and the fears of nuclear disaster in the 1950s.

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history of photography, exhibition studies, globalization of art, censorship, atomic bombing photographs, atoms for Peace campaign

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202010245972

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POPULAR INQUIRY: The Journal of the Aesthetics of Kitsch, Camp and Mass Culture