Space art

For the band, seeSpace Art (band).

The Blue Marble,Earth as seen fromApollo 17,1972

Space art,also known asastronomical art,is a genre that focuses on visual representations of theuniverse.This genre includes various styles, such asrealism,impressionism,abstract imagery,andsculpture.Though artists have long produced art with astronomical elements, the genre of space art itself began only when technological advancement allowed for more detailed observation of the night sky. Space art also attempts to communicate ideas related tospace,often including an artistic interpretation of cosmological phenomena and scientific discoveries. In some cases, space artists use more than illustration and painting to communicateastronomyor works depicting space. Several space artists work directly with scientists developingspaceflight technologyin attempts to expand the arts, humanities, and cultural expression relative tospace exploration.

For many decades, visual artists have explored the topic of space using traditional painting media, followed recently by the use ofdigital mediafor the same purpose.Science fiction magazinesand picture-essay magazines were one of the first major outlets for space art, often featuring planets, spaceships, and dramatic alien landscapes.Chesley Bonestell,R. A. Smith,Lucien Rudaux,David A. Hardy,andLudek Pesekwere some of the prominent artists in the early days of the genre, actively involved in visualizing topics such as space exploration. Astronomers and experts in rocketry played roles in inspiring and informing artists in this genre.

NASA’ssecond administrator,James E. Webb,created the space agency's Space Art program in 1962, four years after its founding.Bonestell'swork in this program often depicted various celestial bodies and landscapes, highlighting both the destinations and the imagined technologies used to reach them.

Astronomical art

Trouvelot,The great nebula in Orion (1875).

Astronomical art is a genre of space art that focuses on visual representations ofouter space.It encompasses various themes, including the space environment as a new frontier for humanity, depictions of alien worlds, representations of extreme phenomena likeblack holes,and artistic concepts inspired byastronomy.

Astronomical art was largely pioneered in the 1940s and 1950s byChesley Bonestell,who was known for his ability to solve perspective problems, paint with the eye of amatte artistto create visual impressions, and seek out experts in fields that fascinated him. To this day, artists often assist in visualizing ideas and concepts for the space community, such as portraying theoretical capabilities for interstellar travel, and illustrating hypothetical objects in deep space.

Astronomical art is the most recent of several art movements that have explored ideas emerging from the ongoing exploration of Earth. Finding its roots in genres such as theHudson River SchoolorLuminism,most astronomical artists use traditional painting methods or digital equivalents in a way that brings the viewer to the frontiers of human knowledge gathered in the exploration of space. Such works usually portray things in the familiar visual language of realism extrapolated to exotic environments, whose details reflect ongoing knowledge and educated guesswork. An example of the process of creating astronomical art would be studying and visiting desert environments to experience something of what it might be like on Mars and painting based on such experiences. Another would be to hear of something likely to be amazing to watch up close, then seek out published articles or experts in the field. Usually, there is an artistic effort to emphasize the favorable visual elements, just as a photographer composes a picture. Notable astronomical art often reflects the artist's interpretation and imagination regarding the subject portrayed.

Science fiction magazines such asFantasy and Science Fiction,Amazing,Astounding(later renamedAnalog), andGalaxyserved as major outlets for the work of space and particularly astronomical artists in the 1950s. Several picture essay magazines of the time, such asLife,Collier's,andCoronet,were other major outlets for such art. Today, astronomical art can be seen in magazines such asSky and Telescope,The Planetary Report,and occasionally inScientific American.TheNASA fine arts programhas been an ongoing effort to hire artists to create works generally specific to a particular space project. The program documents historical events in recognizable form for professional artists. TheNASA Fine Arts Programoperated in an era of forward progress under its first head director, James Dean.Even then, pictorial realism seemed a subset rather than a dominant visual influence.

The works that document space flight situations, such as those referenced above, are similar in concept to government efforts duringWorld War IIto send artists to battle zones to document things as they saw them, much of which appeared in contemporaryLifemagazines. Most of today's widely published space and astronomical artists have belonged to theInternational Association of Astronomical Artistssince 1983.

History

Early history

Land Grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya Kudurru.Susa,Babylonia.(ca. 1186-1172 BC), limestone, 83 cm (32.6 in) x 42 cm (16.5 in) x 33 cm (12.9 in),Louvre.

This is an early depiction of Venus (thestar of Ishtar), the lunarcrescent,and thesolar disk(12th century BC).

Albrecht Altdorfer's paintingThe Battle of Issus(1529) is probably the earliest painting to show the curvature of the Earth from a great height.

Galileo's sketches of the Moon from the ground-breakingSidereus Nuncius(1610) were published among other early descriptions of the Moon's topography.

In 1711,Donato Cretipainted a series of astronomers viewing other planets of theSolar Systemthrough a telescope to interest theVaticanin establishing an astronomical observatory.

19th century

In 1858,Comet Donatiwas recorded in numerous paintings of the time.

James CarpenterandJames Nasmyth's workThe Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite(1874) contains photographs of sculpted models of Lunar features, influential to future space artists in the markedvertical exaggerationof the actual relief of the Moon.

In the 1870s,Étienne Léopold Trouvelotpublished a series ofChromolithographsof his pastels of astronomical subjects.

In 1877,Paul Dominique Philippoteauxand engraver Laplante illustratedJules Verne's storyOff on a Comet,including an imaginative view looking up at therings of Saturnfrom the planet itself.

20th century

In 1918,Howard Russell Butlerdeliberately made use of the dynamic range of human vision in painting a total eclipse based on direct observation.

In 1927, Scriven Bolten created lunar landscape images for theIllustrated London Newsusing painted photos of plaster models.

In 1937,Lucien Rudauxpainted many works forSur Les Autres Mondes

In 1944,Chesley Bonestell's paintings of Saturn seen from its different moons appears inLifemagazine,introducing astronomical art to a wide American audience. Books featuring Bonestell's art includeThe Conquest Of Space(1949),The Exploration Of Mars(1956), andLife'sThe World We Live In(1955).

The secondHayden PlanetariumSymposium on Space Travel, held in New York in October 1952, resulted in a series of widely read space flight articles inColliersmagazine, illustrated by Bonestell and others.

In 1963, Ludek Pesek's paintings filled the large volumesThe Moon And the Planets,and the 1968 volumeOur Planet Earth-From The Beginning.

The 1980CosmosPBS television show and book used the work of many space artists. HostCarl Saganused such art in several of his books.

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  Giovanni di Paolo,The Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise(ca. 1438–44) Tempera & gold on wood (46.5 x 52 cm )Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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  Albrecht Altdorfer, Schlacht bei Issus,Alte Pinakothek
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  Galileo's sketches of the moon.
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  Howard Russell Butler.Eclipse.

Photography

The first photographs of the entire Earth by satellitesand crewedApollo missionsbrought a new sense of our world as an island in empty space and promoted ideas of the essential unity of humanity.Photographs taken by explorers on the Moon shared the experience of being in another world. The famousPillars of CreationHubble Space Telescopeand other Hubble photos often evoke intense responses from viewers, for example, Hubble'splanetary nebulaimages.

Artistry

Space artists may work closely with space scientists and engineers to help them visualize and develop their scientific and technological concepts of space exploration. Other forms of pictorial space art bring the viewer to inner visions inspired, directly or otherwise, by the fruits of the expanding vision of humanity. Some aspects of such art pay visual homage to outer space and popular ideas of life on other worlds, including alien visitation visions, dream symbolism, psychedelic imagery, and other influences on contemporary visionary art.

Artists have experienced free-fall conditions during flights flown with NASA, the Russian and French Space Agencies, and the Zero Gravity Arts Consortium. Early efforts by artists to have art pieces placed in space have already been accomplished with painting, holography, micro-gravity mobiles, floating literary works, and sculpture.

Art in space

Golden olive branch left on the Moon byNeil Armstrong(Apollo 11) as a symbol of peace.

First art created in space

The first active artist in space wasAlexei Leonov,who produced the first drawing in space onboardVoskhod 2in 1965, depicting an orbital sunrise.

First original oil paintings flown in outer space

An art conservation experiment from Vertical Horizons,founded by Howard Wishnow and Ellery Kurtz, was flown aboard theSpace ShuttleColumbiaSTS-61-Con January 12, 1986. Four original oil paintings by American artist Ellery Kurtz were flown in one of NASA'sGetAway Special(G.A.S.) containers mounted to a bridge in the shuttle cargo bay. These original works of art are the first oil paintings to enter Earth's orbit. This NASA GAS canister, designated G-481, was the 46th such canister flown aboard a Space Shuttle. The Space ShuttleColumbiaorbited the Earth 98 times during its mission duration of 6 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 51 seconds.Columbiawas launched from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 12, 1986, and landed at the Kennedy Space Center on January 18, 1986.

Zero-g space art

Fallen Astronaut,left on the Moon byDavid Scottduring theApollo 15mission

Small art objects have been carried on several Apollo missions, such as gold emblems and a smallFallen Astronautfigurine that was left on the Moon during the 1971Apollo 15mission. Visual observations have been recorded in drawings and commentary by earlier cosmonauts and astronauts of difficult-to-photograph phenomena such as theairglow,twilight colors, and outer details of thesolarcorona. An able and observant artist can record aspects of their surroundings beyond the design limitations of any particular camera system.

Another work, later brought to Earth orbit sometime in the mid-80s, was a study of the golden sunlight on a Soviet space station by Russian artist Andrei Sokolov, carried aboard theSoviet Mir space stationstarting with modules in February 1986. In 1984, Joseph McShane and Lowry Burgess had their conceptual artwork flown aboard the Space Shuttle utilizing NASA's 'Get Away Special' program.The first sculpture specifically designed for a human habitat in orbit was Arthur Woods'Cosmic Dancerwhich was sent to the Mir station in 1993. In 1995, Arthur Woods organizedArs ad Astra, the first art exhibition in Earth orbit.consisting of 20 original artworks from 20 artists and an electronic archive also took place on the Mir space station as a part of ESA'sEUROMIR'95 mission. In 1998,Frank Pietronigroflew Research Project Number 33: Investigating the Creative Process in a Micro-gravity Environment, where the artist drew, created 'drift paintings' and danced in micro-gravity space. In 2006, the artist returned to micro-gravity flight to create three new works, one in collaboration withLowry Burgess,Moments in the Infinite Absolute, Flags in Space!,and a new form of micro-gravity mobile.

The Slovenian theater directorDragan Živadinovstaged a performance calledNoordung Zero Gravity Biomechanicalduring a parabolic flight organized through theYuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centerfacility in Star City in 1999. The UK arts groupThe Arts Catalyst,with the MIR consortium (Arts Catalyst, Projekt Atol, V2 Organisation, Leonardo-Olats), organized a series of parabolic 'zero gravity' flights for artistic and cultural experimentation with the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, as well as with theEuropean Space Agency,between 2000 and 2004, includingInvestigations in Microgravity,MIR Flight 001,andMIR Campaign 2003.Artists who participated in these flights and visits to Russia and ESA have included the Otolith Group, shortlisted in 2011 for theTurner Prize,Stefan Gec, Ansuman Biswas andJem Finer,Kitsou Dubois, Yuri Leiderman, and Marcel.li Antunez Roca.

Entrepreneur and astronautRichard Garriottvisited theInternational Space Station,via theSoyuz TMA-13on October 12, 2008, where he displayed an art exhibition,Celestial Matters,during his 12 days in orbit.Celestial Mattersincluded works by ten American artist as well as work Garriott created himself while in orbit, honoring his heritage in art and science. The art was later exhibited at the Charles Bank Gallery in New York City in October 2011.Garriott also exhibitedAstrogeneris Mementos,two small works, somewhat reminiscent ofmemento moriorhairwork,containing locks of hair from Richard Garriott andOwen Garriottsealed in chambers bySteve Brudniak,the firstassemblagesculptures exhibited in outer space.

The Mexican artist and musicianNahumdirected the art and science projectMatters of Gravity(La Gravedad de los Asuntosin Spanish), a project reflecting ongravityin itsabsence.The first mission consisting only of Latin American artists was executed in azero-gravityflight at theYuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centerin 2014. The participating artists includeTania Candiani,Ale de la Puente, Ivan Puig, Arcángelo Constantini, Fabiola Torres-Alzaga, Gilberto Esparza, Juan Jose Diaz Infante,Nahum,and Marcela Armas. The project included the participation of Mexican scientistMiguel Alcubierreand curators Rob La Frenais and Kerry Anne Doyle.

Performance art has also occurred in space, as withChris Hadfield's 2013, edited performance ofDavid Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity."

Sojourner 2020 project onboard the International Space Station

In the Sojourner 2020 project from MIT, the Space Exploration Initiative took nine selected artists to develop art projects on board the International Space Station. Sojourner 2020 was a 1.5U size device (100mm x 100mm x 152.4mm) that was launched into low Earth orbit between March 7 and April 7 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It featured a three-layer telescoping structure that simulated three different "gravities": zero gravity, lunar gravity, and Martian gravity. Each layer of the structure rotated independently. The top layer remained still in weightlessness, while the middle and bottom layers spun at different speeds to produce centripetal accelerations that mimicked lunar gravity and Martian gravity, respectively. Each layer carried six pockets that held the projects. Each pocket was a container with a diameter of 10 mm and a depth of 12 mm. The artist proposed and accomplished artworks in a variety of different mediums, including carved stone sculptures by Erin Genia, liquid pigment experiments by Andrea Ling and Levi Cai, sculptures made of transgender hormone replacement medicines by Adriana Knouf, and living organisms, like marine diatoms of the genusPhaeodactylum Tricornutum,by Luis Guzmán.

The nine artist groups selected onboard Sojourner 2020 were:

Moon Galleryviewed from the ISS Cupola

· Luis Bernardo Guzmán - bio architectures (Cosmo biology) - Chile

· Xin Liu, Lucia Monge -Unearthing the Futures- China and Peru

· Levi Cai & Andrea Ling -Abiogenetic Triptych- USA, Canada

· Kat Kohl -Memory Chain: A Pas de Deux of Artifact- USA

· Henry Tan -Pearl of Lunar- Thai

· Janet Biggs -Finding Equilibrium- USA

· Masahito Ono -Nothing, Something, Everything- Japan

· Adriana Knouf -TX-1- USA

· Erin Genia -Canupa Inyan: Falling Star Woman - American Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate

Artworks launched into outer space

• The Contour of PresencebyNahum
• Orbital ReflectorbyTrevor Paglen
• EnochbyTavares Strachan
• Moon Galleryby the Moon Gallery Foundation

Recontextualization in space

Humans have engaged in many cultural activities in space, particularly on space stations,recontextualizingterrestrial culture and art.

Space art organizations

ISS crew watching a movie in orbit.

See also:Association of Autonomous Astronauts

International Association of Astronomical Artists

Main article:International Association of Astronomical Artists

The premier organization and only guild in the world dedicated to the creation of space art is theInternational Association of Astronomical Artists(IAAA). Composed of over 120 members, artists of the IAAA depict the wonders of the universe in ways to inspire the greater human population and raise awareness of space. Members of the IAAA have been creating space art in all of its myriad forms since its founding in 1982, from traditional painting to digital works to 3-D zero-gravity sculpture. Numerous book and magazine covers, movie effects, or artistic images illustrating the newest astronomical discoveries are done by an IAAA member.

KOSMICA Institute

KOSMICAis an institute that runs poetical, artistic, cultural, and critical projects about outer space activities and their impact on the Earth.KOSMICA's central activity is a series of festivals worldwide, with over 20 editions in various countries. KOSMICA also constantly develops other activities like educational programs, and publications. It has local offices in several cities as well as partner organizations.

See also

• Futurism
• List of space artists

• List of space art related books
• Russian cosmism
• Science-fiction
• Space advocacy
• Time capsule

Further reading

• Space Art,Ron Miller,Starlog Magazine
• Visions of Space,David A. Hardy,Paper Tiger 1989
• Worlds Beyond: The Art of Chesley Bonestell,Ron Miller & Frederick C. Durant, III
• Star Struck: One Thousand Years of the art of Science and Astronomy,Ronald Brashear & Daniel Lewis, 2001 Univ. of Washington Press
• Futures: 50 Years in Space,David A. Hardy &Patrick Moore,AAPPL 2004
• Out of the Cradle: Exploring the Frontiers beyond Earth,William K. Hartmann,Ron Millerand Pamela Lee (Workman Publishing,1984)
• Space Art: How to Draw and Paint Planets, Moons, and Landscapes of Alien Worlds,Michael Carroll,2007 Watson Guptill/Random House
• The Impact of American and Russian Cosmism on the Representation of Space Exploration in 20th Century American and Soviet Space Art,Kornelia Boczkowska, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2016

External links

• International Association of Astronomical Artists
• numerous space art site links