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Norman Rockwell
A Norman Rockwell oil painting shows astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom as they're suited for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. NASA lent Rockwell a Gemini spacesuit in order to make this painting as accurate as possible. Click through highlights from the "NASA | ART" exhibition.
Space visions from well-known painters, photographers, sculptors and astronauts — dating back to the beginnings of NASA's spaceflights in the 1960s — go on display this weekend at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum after a three-year national tour. The exhibition of more than 70 works from the NASA Art Program, titled "NASA | ART: 50 Years of Exploration," comes as the latest chapter of spaceflight history, the 30-year space shuttle program, is nearing its end.
The NASA Art Program was set up in 1962 to show space exploration from a perspective that launch cameras couldn't capture. "The artists were given pretty much free rein to do anything they wanted to do," Tom Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics at the Smithsonian, told The Washington Post. And what artists! The lineup included Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, James Wyeth, Alexander Calder, Annie Leibovitz and William Wegman.
For this exhibition, the curators added works by Norman Rockwell, the classic Americana illustrator; and Alan Bean, the Apollo 12 moonwalker who's an accomplished artist as well. DCist's Heather Goss says the exhibition is "pretty damn spectacular." She calls particular attention to Paul Calle's pen-and-ink sketches of the Apollo 11 astronauts as they were suiting up for their historic 1969 moon landing.
What masterpieces can we expect from future flights? The Post reports that no artists were commissioned to document the shuttle Endeavour's launch on May 16 due to budget cuts, but it says a "world-famous photographer, who declines to be named right now," will be on hand when Atlantis lifts off on July 8 to close out the space shuttle program.
Check out the exhibition, which is on display on the second floor of the National Air and Space Museum on Washington's National Mall through Oct. 9. And if you can't get to the exhibit, you can sample some of the highlights in our "NASA | ART" slideshow.
More about space art:
- Moonwalker's art goes on display at Smithsonian
- Spacey artists win crafty prizes from Etsy and NASA
- Hubble Space Telescope goes pop
- Artists of the final frontier
You can connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. Also, give a look to "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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Thanks Cosmic Log and Alan Boyle for the well-rounded appreciation of the exploration you offer. Your conversation with the world supports the ongoing process of discovering our universe, a process that is a synergistic exchange between our vision into possibilities and the achievement of tomorrow's new realities.
In 1969, NASA invited artist Luciano Guarnieri, an Italian painter from Florence, Italy, to meet and work with astronauts Conrad, Gordon and Bean at the Space Center, Houston. Luciano Guarnieri was a prodigy student of maestro Pietro Annigoni (portraitist to John F. Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth).
Guarnieri subsequently attended the launching of Apollo XII at Cape Kennedy on November 14, 1969 and artistically delineated everything surrounding the historic landing on our planet's moon, immortalizing the event and becoming the world's eyes on the lunar surface.
"Luna 1969" (lithographs) Luciano Guarnieri
Kudos, NASA!
"You are a prophet who envisions a model of truth and beauty for tomorrow's world after which the stars yearn and the land shapes itself and who eventually makes the world become so. You are an architect." - Kenji Miyazawa
Cool pic's!
Im pretty sure with all the advances due to a global perfect market emerging....we will end up in space like the skyline aliens,..
There will be no "alien" we just take in new specie thought patterns into our "mind" be it synthetic, a combo, or organic, and constantly volve...
There would be no "them" or "us" because we wouldn't have one body...we eould have many, and we would enjoy the psychological, chemical impulse, narrative illusionsl of reality.
Space and art. One and the same. The mind,
What really makes a being is the mind, so my reasoning is, if we can acquire thought atterns with so,e sort of neural interface...then there is never any "alien" because the z"aliens" and us merge into one as far as thought patterns are concerned...to mark a bettrr mind, and that new "you" is incidentally "them"
So there really is no "them" we all become the same specie...
We would then exchange bodies and memories and then out ,"mind" could tske control of vsirous bodies and ,machinery, so that intergalacitcally....there would be no "alien"
Then our subconscious operates robots that do what we wish....there will
Be no sky net because we will
Be skynet...we will be the higher intelligence like ghost in the shell....only subconcious robots, with like, monkey intelligence, eill do the manual labour....
I think this is the natural evolution of societies....don't you think?
Its a bit unrelated but "space" and "art" reminded me of sci fi in movies and games.
Personally, i think we as humans are going to mutate into something else and be vastly more intelligent and then space travel will be common place.
There will be no " other" im pretty sure populatio. Is controlled simply by merging conciousnesses over time....or by having super massive "wise ones" just simulate pop,e that are atill alive..making their consciousness "think" they are them like a sort of video game...
This would be an extremely peaceful and communist society, resources would be plentiful due to our robotic extensions, it seems like the natural evolution of any society, now that we see whatctechnology has to offer, that does not go extinct.
From this perspective, all aliens are the same, in fact, there is "no alien" only different thought patterns . We keep our individuality but jsut acquire knowledge, intelligence, and different perspectives and ways of thinking.
Maybe our fears of annihilation reflect our own backwards neural hardwiring. Utopia is far from the human condition. If anything, we have a dystopia ahead, but the far future, one we are vastly more intelligent and not even human?
Who knows.
Skynet may not want to exterminate us, bur instead, merge with us.
Who knows, maybe skynet is god. Not god in it's entirety, but allows him to manifest in our realm or whatever...
Space the final frontier?
No, the mind, but infinite. There are no boundaries in the mind once it is let free.
The final frontier is no frontier at all. It is the infinity.
heeello newsvine-all these space exploration people have missed major point-here on earth the cossaks[russians]and chinese and moslem nations all have pre-set agendas-which means that their govt,s will never alter their courses-which means that mankind will not move into space without serious conflick-if utuyrefuel had been set up internationally-insted of opec greedism-our economic future would be palable-instead we are witnessing continuing corruption,gangsterism,political mass control,the works-soon chavez will be ousted-hopefully-there are many monsters waiting in line-putin will oust medvedev-putin has plans-look at the cdn P.M-majority govt-he is ruthless behind the fascade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and then u.s.a. govt has to survive/mr huggard in canada
"The Post reports that no artists were commissioned to document the shuttle Endeavour's launch on May 16 due to budget cuts"
Every time I hear the outcome of a budget cut, I cringe. Art, science and education always seem to get cut first, yet they matter most.
Also, this comment section so far is some of the craziest, most poorly-written babble I've read. Find the appropriate forums to vent your whims to.
Behold the effects of a lack of good education.