NASA/ART: Where science and art meet

First Steps by Mitchell Jamieson is one of many NASA themed pieces on display at the Art League of Bonita Springs. COURTESY NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION There's science.

And then there's art.

Rarely do the two meet.

But as the "NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration" exhibition demonstrates, not only do opposites attract, but they make a wonderful, enduring marriage too.

This traveling exhibition displays the artwork of world-famous artists who were invited behind-the-scenes at NASA to make art from science. The more than 70 contributors who participated over the decades include artists as diverse as Robert Rauschenberg, Annie Leibovitz, Andy Warhol, Norman Rockwell, Jaimie Wyeth, Nam June Pak, William Wegman, Robert Stone and Alexander Calder.

They worked in paint (oil, acrylic and watercolor), photography, pencil, pastel, pen and ink, handmade paper, mixed-media and video. One used fashion to express himself, creating a dress, while another composed music.

The landmark exhibit was organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in cooperation with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

COURTESY PHOTO Perlmutter: Liftoff at 15 Seconds. And not only is the Art League of Bonita Springs the first anywhere to have the show, which runs from Oct. 24 though Jan. 17, but it is, amazingly, the only Florida venue to host it.

Susan Bridges, executive director of the Art League of Bonita Springs, can hardly believe it.

"I'm thrilled we're the first venue for this show, and the only stop in Florida," she says. "It's just so exciting for us. I'm getting calls from people all across the U.S. and from all parts of Florida."

Originally, the art league was going to host the show in 2009-2010, when the league itself turns 50. But then they were contacted and asked if they wanted to be the first site to host the show. Ms. Bridges spent 2½ days running through the schedule, shifting and moving other shows, before calling the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service back to say yes.

COURTESY PHOTO Robert Rauschenberg at Kennedy Space Center in 1969 for the launch of Apollo 11. "I'm thrilled about being the first venue," she says. "You want to be able to say we were the first organization to host this premiere exhibition."

She points out that NASA's own Web site notes that the national tour begins in Bonita Springs, and organizations including AAA and Southwest Airlines have written about the exhibit in their publications.

Last weekend oversized, sturdy crates filled the gallery, creating a maze, and the scent of fresh wood filled the space. Ms. Bridges and her workers carefully unpacked the crates, which were built specifically to transport these works. Opening them, Ms. Bridges says, was like "a birthday and all the holidays together."

"Every crate contains something absolutely phenomenal to look at, and every one is so totally different. There are major, major artists," she says, adding, "It's not as if they were doing it for the money." (The artists were paid a minimal fee for transportation.) The fact that these artists chose to participate says something about each one and his or her passion for what they do and what they want to say, she adds.

COURTESY PHOTO Wyeth: Gemini Launch Pad. Only a small number of artists, perhaps 300, were given the opportunity to move around freely beyond the scenes at NASA. These are simply copies of photographs taken in space, she explains about the works that make up the exhibit. "These are the actual works the artists made themselves," after being inside NASA.

The idea for a NASA art program began 46 years ago, four years after NASA began. It was the idea of NASA administrator James E. Webb, who in the book, "NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration," wrote: "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."

Webb turned the program over to artist James Dean, who worked with the U.S. Commission of Fine Art and the National Gallery of Art. H. Lester Cooke of the National Gallery of Art assisted in choosing artists for the program, and insisted that no restrictions be placed upon them. They could create whatever they wanted, however they wanted; the only stipulation was that NASA wanted "every drawing made on site, regardless of how slight, (to) be saved and eventually added to the permanent archive… (because) onthe spot sketches often have an impact and immediacy which finished works of art lack."

Surprisingly, a small minority of artists did turn down the invitation: Thomas Hart Benton, Willem de Kooning and Edward Hopper, the latter two declining for personal reasons. Andrew Wyeth agreed, but had to regretfully bow out; his son, Jaimie Wyeth, visited NASA twice, as did Mr. Rauschenberg. Norman Rockwell worked with the art program, but didn't accept an honorarium.

Artists went everywhere — to the launch site (before, during, and after), to the Vehicle Assembly Building, to test sites. Some rode on recovery ships, others went to where the space shuttles landed. Some sketched astronauts as they suited up.

The artwork is realistic, cartoony, whimsical, abstract. There are various views of spaceships on launch pads, waiting and blasting off. There are images of astronauts putting their suits on, getting tested, being lifted out of the water into a helicopter, stepping onto the moon. There are girders and satellite dishes and technology galore. There are nature scenes: beaches, wildflowers, moonscapes, starscapes and images of Earth from afar.

The work is beautiful in its variety. Robert Vickrey's "Points of Perspective," while highly realistic, is almost abstract in its composition. It shows a worker inspecting the slanted launch pad surface for damage after the launch of Apollo 12. The launch pad tilts at odd angles, creating geometric patterns.

Photographer William Wegman created a triptych, "Chip and Batty Explore Space," which shows the two Weimaraners in space. In the far left panel, Chip, in a white space suit, is floating in space and waving. In the far right panel, Batty sits in a space station (seemingly constructed with Styrofoam panels), wearing headphones and looking out a portal. In the middle panel, suspended in black space, is a silver globe of the moon, with the names of various craters and the words "Made in the USA" printed on it.

Jack Perlmutter's oil "Liftoff at 15 Seconds" shows the space shuttle Columbia rising from its launch pad. The shuttle is simple, almost cartoonlike, outlined in thick, navy lines. The red fire balls beneath it almost look like explosions, and stand out against the rich blue of the sky.

Mr. Wyeth's watercolor, "Gemini Launch Pad," shows a more peaceful view of a launch pad; the red rocket and tower stands out in the distance, while a grass-covered concrete blockhouse fills the foreground. And in the lower right corner, a small red bicycle leans against a wall, contrasting two forms of transportation.

Several artists recorded the sad chapters of NASA's history. In "Apollo 1," Paul Calle drew a tribute to Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee, who died in a fire in the Apollo 1 spacecraft. The finely detailed pencil-onpaper drawing shows the three astronauts as if seen in a black-and-white negative.

Greg Mort sketched "Challenger in White," a graphite-on-paper piece that shows a model of Challenger on top of a cabinet, the space shuttle wrapped in a lace handkerchief.

Ms. Bridges opens a crate to show a sculpture not yet hung: Chakaia Booker's striking "Columbia Tribute," made with rubber, wiring, nails, wood and pieces of a space shuttle tire. While some think the rubber sculpture looks like a black star, it also resembles a black orchid, an oversized flower of mourning. Others might see it as a black wreath, its textured, treaded rubber looped and bowed together.

"It's sad and dark," says Ms. Bridges, who plans to suspend the piece in the gallery. "It's a heavy piece, it weighs a lot. You want to be able to get people close enough so they can feel the sadness. There is something about this that is elegant, and scary and sad and dark. It's not usual, that something would has all those elements, and yet, this one does."

Ms. Bridges believes it was forwardthinking of NASA to create an art program. "You can't throw a scientific formula up on a board and have 200 people come through your gallery to look at equations up on a wall," she says.

It's images that connect with people. It's images that stir viewers' hearts, giving them a sense of excitement, exhilaration and wonder. And it's images that remind us why we travel into space and explore the great unknown.

If you go

>>What: "NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration"

>>When:Oct. 24 - Jan 17; opening reception 6-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24. Gallery hours are: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1-5 p.m. Saturday

>>Where: The Art League of Bonita Springs, 26100 Old 41 Road, Bonita Springs

>>Cost: Free

>>Info: Call 495-8989 or go to www.artcenterbonita. org. Free Art of Science & Space family activity days will take place from 1-3 p.m. on Nov. 1, 22, 29 and Jan. 2 and 17. Parents and children can watch a movie about space and work together on projects that integrate art and science.