A series of Japanese paintings mainly depicting the misery of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima will be displayed at a gallery in Australia this year, the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The set of 15 works titled "The Hiroshima Panels" by the late artists Iri and Toshi Maruki was produced between 1950 and 1982 based on the couple's experience of seeing Hiroshima just days after the Aug 6, 1945, bombing.
Fourteen of the works, drawn on panels each measuring 1.8 meters by 7.2 meters, are in the permanent collection of the Maruki Gallery in Saitama Prefecture and some of them will be exhibited at a gallery in Queensland, Australia, from November to March next year.
The exhibition comes after Maruki Gallery's curator Yukinori Okamura spoke at a symposium at the University of Sydney around five years ago. Inspired by his speech, a local curator asked to display the works on the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The gallery has received an increasing number of inquiries from art history researchers overseas in recent years, according to the museum.
"More people become interested (in the paintings) every time a war or a nuclear accident occurs," said Okamura, noting that a young Russian visited the gallery "for a survey" after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The works have been on display at the gallery since it was built by the Marukis in 1967, though they were also lent overseas in the 1950s and 1960s during the Cold War.
But the works have undergone restoration due to deterioration, as the gallery building is not suitable for storing artworks because of poor insulation. The gallery began a fundraising drive in 2017 to restore the paintings and renovate the building.
After collecting over 320 million yen ($2 million) from people in and outside Japan including countries in Asia and Europe, the gallery is scheduled to close from September 2025 to around May 2027 for renovation.
"The role of the Hiroshima Panels is to convey the message that the wounds people suffer in war never heal. I want the works to be seen in many countries," Okamura said. "The nuclear issue is one shared by all humankind."
