MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This presentation examines the NASA Art Program from 1962-1973, with a focus on two of its most famous participants—Norman Rockwell and Robert Rauschenberg. Conceived in the same year that President John F. Kennedy made his now-famous “We Choose to Go to the Moon” speech, the art program invited artists to Cape Canaveral to record their impressions of NASA and its rocket launches. NASA hoped the art produced would reignite the public’s interest in space travel, which had ebbed since the enthusiasm of the 1950s and the early missions of the Mercury program. The art program is significant as an example of how NASA chose to present itself to the public during this crucial period, as well as how individuals outside of the scientific community interpreted and found meaning in the space program.

Although Rockwell and Rauschenberg were men of distinct styles and perspectives, it is possible to see both as embodiments of the era’s ambivalence towards NASA. Rockwell joined the art program in its early stages and produced paintings that portrayed NASA in the wholesome, traditional style that characterized much of his work. Yet he struggled with the technological subjects, and questioned whether the Apollo mission was a “lunatic” idea. Rauschenberg joined later, when the program was recruiting more avant-garde artists, and while he was enthusiastic about space travel and the potential of merging art and technology, his work cautioned against the dangers of a society blindly driven by technology. As the example of these two artists demonstrates, the Apollo program was not embraced as enthusiastically as American popular memory might suggest.This paper highlights a neglected aspect of NASA’s history, correcting overly nostalgic or laudatory accounts, while also adding to a growing body of scholarship on the relationship of art to science and technology.