Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

Far OUt: the SpaCe age IN aMerICaN CUltUre
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In some cases the trajectory of vision for abstract expressionist painters
seemed quite directly in synch with space exploration, even if the connections
often stood largely unnoticed or unarticulated at the time. richard pousette-dart,
for example, brought to canvass Space age motifs in Night Landscape (1969-71), a
blue, black, white, and yellow sky dense with layered planets and rotations; Starry
Space (1961); and Earth Shadow in Time (1969). Other artists also explored Space
age concerns. robert rauschenberg, for example, produced his “Stoned Moon”
cycle of paintings after being invited by NaSa to witness the launch of apollo
11. 61 there were many, many more artists who drew from new understandings in
physics and astronomy to fashion commentaries on perspective, on the fungibility
of matter and energy, and on the universe’s enigmatic proportions. Fascination with
the “far out” provided the ethos of the era, in art as well as in science and politics.
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For a couple of decades, googie design and its many ofshoots shined as
brightly as the Moon and stars. googie was a style of optimism, an exemplar of
free and unregimented spirits who broke the rules, an efervescence of populist
self-confdence. If the Space age coincided with an increasingly powerful
american imperium, then googie represented the imperial signature of what
one historian has termed america’s “empire of fun.” Its bold and shiny surfaces
revealed few dark sides.
5. CONClUSION
From the 1950s to the 1970s, space held many meanings: it was a symbolladen
arena in which people and nations staged Cold War competitions, a “star”
in the media frmament, an ultimate challenge for scientists and engineers, and
an inspiration for artists and designers.
In 1966, Wernher von Braun ended his book on the history of space travel
with a vision of what steps would follow after the projected apollo Moon
landing. he asserted that there would soon be semi-permanent bases on the
Moon, growing vegetables and chickens. he then predicted a fyby to Mars or
Venus by the late 1970s, landings on Mars in the 1980s, and the exploration of
other planets and moons until the process of discovery became routine. 62
61. robert rauschenberg; Stoned Moon, http://www.orbit.zkm.de/?q=node/277 (accessed September
15, 2007).
62. Von Braun and Ordway, History of Rocketry, p. 222. For a well-illustrated, recent attempt to
reimagine the past and future of space exploration, see roger d. launius and howard e.
McCurdy, Imagining Space: Achievements, Predictions, Possibilities, 1950-2050 (San Francisco,
Ca: Chronicle Books, 2001).