Article Posted on : - Sep 09, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC (BNS): On the occasion of NASA’s 50th birthday celebrations in October, the agency is bringing out an art book titled ‘NASA/ART - 50 Years of Exploration’. The book is a historic collection of space inspired art work spanned over 50 years by well-known artists.

Artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell, James Wyeth, Nam June Paik, Patti LaBelle, William Wegman, Mike and Doug Starn, and Annie Leibovitz have all contributed to the book.

Administrator James E Webb with a great forethought felt that space exploration would make a profound cultural impact, apart from advances in science and technology and set up the NASA Art Programme in 1962. The programme came into existence exactly after four years after NASA was established. In this, the agency would commission art work from well-known artists who would draw and interpret the space agency's missions.

Speaking about the programme, curator Bert Ulrich said that through the NASA Art Programme, artists have given an inside glimpse into the missions and programmes, which made up the space agency. “Through their imaginations, artists have shared an entirely new interpretation of the NASA story with the public,” Ulrich said.

In the upcoming book, published by Harry N Abrams, New York, co-authors James Dean and Ulrich present 150 full colour illustrations with essays by astronaut Michael Collins, curator Tom D Crouch and novelist Ray Bradbury. The ‘NASA/ART - 50 Years of Exploration’ book is a companion to the Smithsonian traveling art exhibition picked from the collections of NASA and National Air and Space Museum, which features 73 works of America's leading artists.