On the Visual Fine Arts in the Space Age

Abstract

Whether or not the special physical conditions and experiences encountered during manned flight in space and during man's sojourn on the Moon and other celestial bodies will significantly affect the visual fine arts is an intriguing question. In this note, I use the term visual fine art to mean: 'the discipline that has the purpose, by means of artifacts, of stimulating human emotions and of deepening emotional perception of selected portions of man's environment' [1]. There are three aspects of 'space-age' art: (1) art made on the Earth with new techniques or materials developed by astronautical technology, incorporating visual experiences provided by space flight and exploration; (2) art made on the Earth to express either the resulting new psychological experiences or the possible new philosophical conceptions of man and of the universe; and (3) art made and used on the Moon and on other planets. The age-old dream of man to fly in the atmosphere like birds and to emulate the angels and demons of his imagination has been a reality for some 60 years. It is true that only a very small percentage of the Earth's population has flown in aircraft and I know of no professional artist who owns and operates his own aircraft. A case can perhaps be made that aviation has affected the visual conceptions of artists. Some have attempted to give an illusion of the motion of bodies at high speed using traditional painting techniques, in particular, the group in Italy that called itself the Futurists [2]. More recently, some have developed kinetic art to give the viewer an experience of real motion or of change of color with time. Others introduced aviation subjects into their art and used in their compositions, usually called 'abstract', landscape as seen from an aircraft in flight. But, all in all, I do not find an art of the 'air-age' of broad significance from the point of view of visual conception to compare with cubism, abstract art, constructivism and surrealism. Man's thoughts of voyaging to the Moon and other celestial bodies are of recent origin compared