Alan Sonneman

The Last Washington Painting by Alan Sonneman depicts the infamous image of the atomic bomb test “Operation Crossroads” at Bikini Atoll in 1946 imposed upon the skyline of the capitol of our empire, Washington, D.C.. The Washington Monument is at the center of the explosion. Painted in the waning day of the Cold War and the official policy referred to as MAD (mutually assured destruction), it became the iconic image of the Nuclear Disarmament Movement in the 1980s.

The painting was first exhibited at the Washington Project for the Arts, Washington D.C. on March 3rd, 1980. At that time it was featured on the front page of the Washington Post’s Style section three times, twice in the Washington Star and many other publications including the covers of Common Cause Magazine. In 1981 it appeared in the exhibition, “Crimes of Compassion” at the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia. In 1982 it was seen again at Norse Gallery, Washington D.C. for the exhibition “Premonitions of the Corporate Wars” and concurrently reproduced as a poster for an anti-nuclear rally in Central Park in New York City that drew a quarter million people. The painting was featured on the cover and a two-page centerfold in 1984 for Common Cause Magazine.

After 30 years it re-emerged when J. W. Mohoney asked to include it in a survey of the history of the Washington Project for the Arts at the Katzen Art Center at American University, Washington D.C.. in November 2010. Having lost track of its provenance, a search was undertaken to find it which was chronicled in a cover story in the Washington City Paper in July 2010. It is arguably the most recognized work of art produced in our nation’s capital in the last 50 years.