An exhibition by a U.S. painter, who captured the horrors of nuclear power after a Japanese fishing ship was caught in an H-bomb test, will be scaled back at a Fukushima museum after U.S. museums declined to lend works for it, some citing radiation concerns.
An exhibition by a U.S. painter, who captured the horrors of nuclear power after a Japanese fishing ship was caught in an H-bomb test, will be scaled back at a Fukushima museum after U.S. museums declined to lend works for it, some citing radiation concerns.
The Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art has given up borrowing 69 works from seven U.S. museums for “Ben Shahn: Cross Media Artist,” scheduled for June-July, and will present about 430 works owned by domestic museums.
Shahn (1898-1969), a native of Lithuania, is known for his works on nuclear power, war and poverty.
He produced the “Lucky Dragon” series, featuring the Fukuryu Maru No. 5, a Japanese fishing vessel whose crew was exposed to radiation from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test in 1954. The Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art owns part of the series.
“We cannot say that Fukushima, where we live, is absolutely safe,” Yasuko Araki, curator at the Fukushima museum, said. “It is the very reason for which we think it is meaningful to see Shahn’s works here and now and think about them again.”
Harvard University’s Fogg Museum, which was to lend 52 of the 69 works from U.S. museums, said it gave top priority to the safety of staff and artworks.
An official told The Asahi Shimbun that the museum took into consideration the serious situation at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant and the U.S. State Department’s recommendation for refraining from traveling within a 50-mile (80-kiometer) radius of the crippled plant.
“Ben Shahn: Cross Media Artist” is a traveling exhibition that started at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama in December. It will be held at the Nagoya City Art Museum and the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art between February and May before arriving in Fukushima.
The exhibition in Fukushima will be the only one in which the 69 works from U.S. museums will not be included.
The Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art was damaged by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake.
When it reopened in April, the museum told U.S. museums that the Ben Shahn exhibition would be held as scheduled. It also promised to provide information on damage in Fukushima Prefecture and radiation levels continuously. The U.S. museums replied by August.
The Fogg Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art said they will exclude Fukushima from the recipient museums.
Officials cited radiation concerns, according to the Fukushima museum.
The remaining four U.S. museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, said they will watch the situation, consider the issue and reply again or gave similar responses.
The Fukushima museum gave up on borrowing works from them as well.
Other museums in Fukushima Prefecture have also been denied requests to borrow works from museums abroad due to concerns about radiation and earthquakes.
The Iwaki City Art Museum canceled three exhibitions scheduled for April through October last year after museums in Czech Republic, France and the United States refused to lend their works.
It has also decided to call off an exhibition scheduled for April-May this year.
“It remains difficult to coordinate projects with overseas museums even in 2012,” the museum’s deputy director said.
The Koriyama City Museum of Art added works from domestic museums to an exhibition of paintings held in September and October after a French museum refused to lend its works.
France’s Louvre Museum, on the other hand, will hold a touring exhibition through Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, all hit hard by the March 11 quake, from April.
The Iwaki City Art Museum said a European museum has proposed to pay for transportation costs for artworks as part of its assistance to the disaster-hit areas.