Now hanging at the Unitarian Church in Evanston, Illinois is a painting of the Big Bang. Darkness Into Light (1961) was painted by the artist Martyl Langsdorf (1917-2013). The mural was a spiritual-ecological statement about the human being’s intrinsic connections to the universe when the threat of nuclear war loomed large. Martyl was keenly aware of the nuclear threat. Her husband was a Manhattan Project physicist. She served as the arts editor for the pro-disarmament public policy journal The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and designed their iconic Doosmday Clock in 1947. This presentation examines how Martyl painted physical phenomena like the Big Bang, particle wave duality, and planetary relativity to challenge the masculinist culture of the men who built the bomb.
Isaiah Bertagnolli received his PhD in art history from the University of Pittsburgh in 2025. His research focuses on artist participation in nuclear disarmament movements. He has held research fellowships at the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and has twice been a finalist (though rejected both times) from postdocs at Harvard.
This service will be held in person and online.
On Sunday at 10 a.m. MDT, watch the livestream below. You may need to refresh the page to get the video to load. You can also click here to watch the service on YouTube.