SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES
Tony Price : Atomic Art
Exhibition Prospectus
For over thirty years, with single-minded dedication, self-taught artist Tony Price beat swords into plowshares, recycling scrap material from the nuclear weapons programs at Los Alamos National Laboratories, birthplace of the atomic bomb, into assemblages to awaken people to the nuclear threat.
Yet this is not simply protest art. The viewer is simultaneously attracted by the works’ humorous references and the beauty of the exquisitely-machined metalparts and repelled by the awareness of their origins in the design of weapons of mass destruction.
Like others of his generation, Price was fascinated by the analogies between the role of contemporary artists and thatof alchemists and shamans in other cultures. His use of masks evokes the transformative rituals of global sacred traditionsto challenge the contemporary worship of technology and its ultimate destructive expression in nuclear weapons and to express his belief in the need for transformation of our own society.
Organized by THE FRIENDS OF TONY PRICE and assembled by independent curator James Rutherford, the exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalog, introductory CD-ROM, panel text & photographs, and the 1982 television documentary: Atomic Artist by Glen Silber & Claudia Vianello.
Number of Objects: 19 (additional works also available)

Participation Fee: negotiable

Space Requirements: approx. 1,500 square feet

Security: Moderate

Availability: Beginning Summer 2005

Contact: James Rutherford or Rosé Cohen
Exhibition Checklist
Tony Price
Earth Protector Kachina*
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*Any of numerous deified ancestral spirits of the Pueblo peoples, believed to reside in the pueblo for part of each year.

Tony Price
Nuclear Aztec God Tlaloc* / God of Celestial Fire & Rain
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*The Aztec god of rain, agriculture, fire, and the south.

Tony Price
Beware of Mad Generals
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Dead Duck Award
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Nuclear Nordic Goddess Fetter*
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*A Valkyrie, a maiden of Odin, one of his aspects,
who choose the heroes to be slain in battle.

Tony Price
Nuclear Kachina* / Protector of Food
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
1st Mutant Man Born Without An Asshole
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Native Who Sold His Island For A Nuclear Test
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Nuclear Garuda*
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*Hindu deity. Called the king of birds and also the carrier of Lord Vishnu.

Tony Price
Pharaoh’s Cure – “Nuclear Weapons Are The Curse For Falling So Deeply Into Matter”
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Samurai* Spirit Mask / Nagasaki
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*The warrior aristocracy of Japan

Tony Price
Atomic Aztec God
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Deer Spirit Mask
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Hanuman* / Hindu God , Rama’s Chief Helper
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*Hindu monkey god. Popular deity embodies strength, modesty, and courageousness in actions. Most celebrated quality is his total devotion to his master, Lord Rama. Customary to call out to Hanuman at all times of need.

Tony Price
Prince Moses Speaks Out On Nuclear Waste
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

Tony Price
Nuclear Nordic God Heimdall*
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*Nordic god of light, watchman of the gods. Creator of the three races of mankind: the serfs, the peasants, and the warriors.

Tony Price
Odin* / Chief Nordic God
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*Chief divinity of the Norse pantheon, God of war and death. Also God of poetry and wisdom. Traded his eye for a drink from the Well of Wisdom.

Tony Price
Atomic Quetzalcoatl*
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*One of the major deities of the Aztecs, considered the inventor of the calendar and god of agriculture. Also a symbol of death and resurrection and a patron of priests.

Tony Price
Moon Kachina* / Protector of Animals
no date
mixed-media
Courtesy of the artist’s estate

*Any of numerous deified ancestral spirits of the Pueblo peoples, believed to reside in the pueblo for part of each year.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS:

 Elliott McDowell
Tony On Site @ Yucca Flats
1982
archival digital print
Courtesy of the artist


James Hart (2 photos)
“Tony Price's Last Studio, Reserve, NM”
archival digital prints
Courtesy of the Friends of Tony Price


Lisa Law
Tony Price, El Rancho, NM
1972
archival digital print
Courtesy of the artist


Mariana Cook
Tony Price, Santa Fe, NM
1988
selenium-toned, silver gelatin print
Courtesy of the artist