The NASA Art Program

[On 1 December, I posted a couple of articles on Orbital Reflector, a huge sculpture created by artist Trevor Paglen that is currently orbiting the Earth (see “Sculpture In Space”).  That’s the first piece of art created for display in space (it will disintegrate in our atmosphere before it reaches Earth after circling the globe for about three months, so it will never be seen here below), but the National Air and Space Administration, better known as NASA, founded in 1958, has had a program soliciting artists to create art about space and space exploration since 1962.  Here are two articles about that program, which you will see has enlisted some very well-known artists to its endeavors.  I just recently learned of this match-up of art and technology, and the pairing fascinated me.  ~Rick]

“NASA AND THE ARTS”

by Bert Ulrich

On first consideration, the concept of NASA commissioning pieces of art may seem far-fetched. However, reflecting the tradition of the military’s art programs, NASA began commissioning artists to document and capture on canvas the drama of its missions. The catalyst behind NASA leaving an artistic legacy was NASA Administrator James Webb. Upon seeing a deftly executed portrait of Alan Shepard, Webb came up with the idea of an arts program. Webb felt that NASA should actively seek out artists to show a different side of the space agency, reflecting that “Important events can be interpreted by artists to give a unique insight into significant aspects of our history-making advances into space. An artistic record of this nation’s program of space exploration will have great value for future generations and may make a significant contribution to the history of American art.”

A NASA art commission was modest, a mere $800, but artists were not motivated by the financial gains but rather at the prospect of witnessing American history and documenting it. They were also given free reign to create works of art. NASA was not going to dictate a certain style as was the case of socialist realism of the Soviet Union. In fact, artists interested in participating in the program were quite a diverse group, ranging from the avant garde Robert Rauschenberg to the figurative Norman Rockwell. Rauschenberg created works for various launches, including Apollo 11 and the first space shuttle launch. Rockwell visited NASA centers and was even loaned a real space suit to create works, which would be displayed in Look magazine.

The first group of NASA artists traveled to the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., in 1963 to witness the last Mercury launch, transporting Gordon Cooper on orbit. Artists commissioned included Peter Hurd, George Weymouth, Paul Calle, Robert McCall, Robert Shore, Lamar Dodd and John McCoy. Mitchell Jamieson was assigned to a recovery ship to artistically document splashdown and landing operations. Although NASA staff needed to get used to artists being around, after a while they welcomed them into the NASA community, which afforded the artists amazing access, including suit-up activities. Artist Peter Hurd reflected on the whole experience: “For the next five days, we painters, seven in all, roamed the Cape, sometimes with guides, sometimes by ourselves. We had been invited … to make notes, sketches and paintings … to form an archive of potential historical value. I am certain that I speak for all when I say we were, each of us, tremendously stirred and often awed, by the things we saw and heard during those five crowded days.”

The works created from Cooper’s mission were incorporated into an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in 1965. Art Critic Frank Getlein who reviewed the exhibition for the Washington Star wrote, “‘Eyewitness to Space’ is the collective name of 70 paintings and drawings produced by 15 artists under the NASA Art Program, now 2 years old. The work shows total freedom and a wide variety, ranging from the superb illustrationist’s style of Paul Calle to the highly individual abstraction of Washington artist Alfred McAdams.” The success of the first exhibition led to a second exhibition of NASA art at the National Gallery in 1969 following Apollo 11. However, as the Apollo program drew to a close in the 1970s, fewer commissions took place, which coincided with the lull of missions between Apollo and the shuttle. James Dean arranged for a transfer of NASA commissioned works to the National Air and Space Museum to protect the collection. It wasn’t until the inauguration of the space shuttle that the program took on a new momentum under the direction of Robert Schulman. Schulman’s commissions embraced a number of subjects, but mostly focused on the space shuttle.

In the 1990s the program was turned over to Bert Ulrich, who was tasked by Administrator Dan Goldin to embrace new art forms. Works included video art by Nam June Paik, an Ode to NASA by Ray Bradbury, and photography by Annie Leibovitz. Patti LaBelle performed a song commissioned by NASA that would eventually be nominated for a grammy. The song “Way Up There” became an elegy for the lost crew of space shuttle Columbia. Works have been commissioned on subjects ranging from Mars probes to the Hubble Space Telescope. Newly commissioned works started to attract the attention of museums like the Pompidou Center in Paris; the Hirshhorn Museum and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.; and the Guggenheim, New York, N.Y.; which all exhibited NASA commissioned works. For NASA’s 50^th anniversary, the Smithsonian is collaborating with NASA and the National Air and Space Museum to create a traveling exhibit of NASA art, which will run until 2010.

Today, the art program has been scaled back, but commissions have continued for a modest honorarium of $2,500. The collection currently comprises of some 3,000 works divided between the National Air and Space Museum and NASA. They still share something new with the public, and tell NASA’s story in a unique way. They also provide a historical record. After all, what often is left over of great ages in history is art. As Lester Cooke, one of the NASA art program’s original founders, wrote, “I hope that future generations will realize that we have not only scientists and engineers capable of shaping the destiny of our age, but also artists worthy to keep them company.”

[This undated (ca. 2008) article was originally posted on the NASA website (https://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/arts.html).  The site contains some samples of the NASA art.  Bert Ulrich has been the Multimedia Liaison for  Film and TV Collaborations at NASA since 2005.]

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“ANDY WARHOL, ANNIE LEIBOVITZ, NORMAN ROCKWELL FEATURED IN NASA | ART”

by Arcynta Ali Childs

These famous artists and many others are among those with works in the Air and Space Museum’s newest art exhibit

When you think about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), art may not be the first, or even the second, thing that comes to mind.  A new traveling exhibition, “NASA | ART: 50 Years of Space Exploration,” on display at the Air and Space Museum from May 28 to October 9, just may change that.

The NASA | ART project was established in 1962 by NASA administrator James E. Webb. Its mission was simple—commission artwork that captured the essence of what the agency and the space program were all about, in ways that photographs simply could not, says Tom Crouch, senior curator of aeronautics and art at the museum.

Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper’s 1963 Faith 7 spacecraft launch, depicted in Mitchell Jamieson’s First Steps, marked the first time that an artist was sent to a space event. The program, initially launched by James Dean, still continues today, under the leadership of Burt Ulrich, the program’s curator at NASA Headquarters.

Dean helped select more than 70 works of art, including drawings, photographs, sculpture and other artistic renderings “that would both represent the NASA | ART collection as it was and is and celebrate the 50 year history of the agency,” Crouch says.

The collection, arranged chronologically, takes viewers through an exploration of space—from Mercury to Apollo to Gemini, to the space shuttle, aeronautics and beyond—as told from the perspective of artists including Annie Leibovitz, Alexander Calder, Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, among others.

“Artists are given this sort of back door view of what NASA’s all about and what’s nice is that they can share that experience through their own imagination to the public,” Ulrich says. “It really took a lot of foresight, I think, for James Webb who started the program. I think he had this idea that through the great ages of history, art is often the residue of that and it’s such a wonderful way of looking back at history.” In addition to depicting the people, places and great events that viewers already know, the artists also introduce viewers to other astronauts and aspects of space exploration they may not.

Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith uses various aspects of Native American symbolism in her painting Indian Science, which honors the first Native American astronaut John Bennett Herrington. Annie Leibovitz’s photograph entitled Eileen Collins captures the first female pilot (Discovery, 1995) and the first female commander of a space shuttle (Columbia, 1999) during training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Artist and fashion designer Stephen Sprouse (1953-2004) used imagery from the Sojourner Rover to create a work of art that was essentially a dress and a pair of slippers. The piece called NASA Rover Mars Pink, carried an additional twist. With a pair of 3-D glasses, the dress took on a whole new dimension. The designer debuted it in a line of clothing he showed at NYC fashion week in 2000.

Towards the end of the exhibition, artists commemorate the astronauts from the Columbia and Challenger missions in “Remembering Lost Crews.” Artist Chakaia Booker uses pieces of a space shuttle tire donated to her by NASA to create a sculpture, Columbia Tribute, which resembles a black star, hanging on the wall above the gallery.

The final piece, though, is an unexpected musical composition written by Terry Riley with a multimedia component designed by Willie Williams, and called “Sun Rings.” Performed by the Kronos Quartet, the piece incorporates actual sounds of space—radio waves from the far reaches of the universe converted into sound waves.

“The whole exhibit is the arrogance of man’s imagination,” says Nichelle Nichols, the actress who played Lt. Uhura on “Star Trek” and who later worked for NASA in the 1970s and 80s recruiting women and minorities to the space program. “I realize what a powerful word that is, it’s not negative,” she continues. “This is what all the art is—to imagine what it is that takes us from ground zero to as far as the imagination can take you and then beyond; an incredible collection.”

[This article initially appeared in Smithsonian magazine on 31 May 2011.

[NASA | ART: 50 Years of Space Exploration was on display at the Smithsonian’ National Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C., from 28 May to 9 October 2011. The museum is open daily (except December 25)  from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  See https://airandspace.si.edu for more details.

[Arcynta Ali Childs was awarded journalism fellowships from the New York Times Student Journalism Institute, the National Press Foundation, the Poynter Institute and the Village Voice. She also has worked at Ms. magazine, O, and Smithsonian.]