Space for Art or Art for Space? That is the question.
I recently had a chance to attend a webinar featuring Chris Calle (son of Paul Calle whose sketch of Buzz Aldrin suiting up for Apollo 11 is pictured above) on NASA's Art Program, created in 1962. The program was the creation of NASA Administrator James Webb (think Webb telescope - a future blog discussion) to document and create portraits of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Eight artists were invited to the NASA Art Program which included Paul Calle, Lamar Dodd, Peter Hurd, Mitchell Jamieson, Robert T. McCall, John W. McCoy, Robert Shore, and George Weymouth.
Over the years, the program has included artists such as Annie Leibowitz, Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, Andy Warhol and William Wegman, among many others. I really like this painting of Skyway by Robert Rauschenberg in the Dallas Museum of Art collection and will seek it out each time I visit.
I expect that the NASA Art Program inspired other artists. One of my favorite artists who muse about space is Tom Sachs (pictured below) who created the Tea Ceremony exhibition. I had the chance to see Tea Ceremony at the Nasher Sculpture Center and even met Tom Sachs at The Great Create and filmmaker/tea master Johnny Fogg at a tea ceremony. I have included a link of Tea Ceremony filmed at the Noguchi Museum in NYC.
I had the chance to visit The Contemporary Austin - Laguna Gloria in March 2021 and saw two Tom Sachs sculptures in the garden including Miffy Fountain, a silicon bronze sculpture of the popular Dutch bunny character that appears to be crying (tears of joy, I think) and Tower of Power, a pillar of cast bronze car batteries. Thanks to Spread & Co., I also enjoyed a very nice Matcha Latte in the garden as a celebration to Tom Sachs. Cheers!
I look forward to the next generation of artists who will participate in NASA's Art Program by documenting the Artemis Missions with astronauts flying on the Orion spacecraft and SLS. I cannot help to wonder which artists will fill the space boots of artists before them.
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