Martyl
1917 St. Louis, Missouri - 2013 Schaumburg, Illinois
Person TypeIndividual
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BiographyMartyl Suzanne Langsdorf was born on March 16, 1917. Her mother, Aimee Schweig, was a painter and her father, Martin Schweig, Sr., was a photographer. Martyl graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. She married Alexander Langsdorf Jr., a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, in 1942. Together they had two daughters, Alexandra and Suzanne. Martyl is best known for being the designer behind the Doomsday Clock, a symbol for the potential devastation of nuclear weapons and the apocalypse. The clock was created for the cover of the June 1947 issue of the "Bulletin of the Atonic Scientists." The idea of using a clock for the cover was meant to signify urgency, with the hands counting down to midnight. Martyl designed the sketch of the clock on the back of a copy of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, with the idea that the background color would change every month. The design of the clock ran on the cover of the Bulletin, for decades, and can still be found somewhere on the cover. Martyl drew end pieces and illustrations for Bulletin articles from 1947 until the 1970s. Martyl heavily painted abstract landscapes and still lifes. She had nearly 100 solo exhibitions during her eight-decade career. She drew up until her death in 2013. Her works have found homes in the National Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Printworks Gallery in Chicago.