Space Art

SHOW TIME: Sunday afternoon we headed toward what seems to be our home away from home lately, The Museum of Flight. Our reason for being there was it was a Space Art celebration.

The museum had put out a call for youth artists to submit works to be considered in the show. Annabelle submitted a design and was happy to learn she'd been chosen to participate. We dropped her canvas off last Wednesday, and it was on display at the museum from Friday through Sunday.

We were super busy all day Friday and Saturday, as well as Sunday morning, but we finally headed to the museum on Sunday afternoon to check out the art show. It was pretty cool to find Annabelle's canvas under the nose of the space shuttle trainer in the space art gallery!

We were really impressed by all of the artwork on display. I took a couple of quick videos of them.

It was really fun for Annabelle to be a fly on the wall as people were looking at the art on display. As luck would have it, during the five minutes we stood there, three groups that passed through the exhibit stood in front of her canvas and commented on it and took photos. She was very flattered. 

There were a number of arts-and-crafts activities for Space Art Day, but we arrived too late to participate, having been busy before. However, we were just in time to see a really interesting biopic movie in the MoF's theater. 

Here's the trailer for the movie. ...

And here are reviews from the resident critics. Annabelle is up first. 

On August 25th at the Museum of Flight, my family and I had the privilege of getting to see the film “Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future”. The documentary follows the life of Chesley Knight Bonestell Jr., whom is considered the “Father of Modern Space Art.” He was born in San Francisco in 1888 and showed his prowess at painting as early as high school. This upset his grandfather, who wanted him to take over the printing mill when he came of age. Chesley instead began to study architecture in New York, where he could put his talents to work in bringing other students’ designs to life (such as the now-famous Chrysler Building). He soon began applying his newfound knowledge of camera angles and modelling to his own personal artwork, coinciding with the beginning of the Space Race. You can see influence from his extraterrestrial landscapes in almost every example of space art, and it even inspired some NASA employees to pursue their careers.

While the film did do a wonderful job at documenting his life, I do wish it spent a bit more time focusing in on his art techniques and paintings. It seemed rather heavy on the biography side of things at times. Despite this, the film is gorgeous in terms of visual presentation, truly bringing to life his artwork and influence. I would recommend the film to people who are interested in space travel history or biographies, but it may not be as interesting to you if you were expecting an art film. I personally enjoyed it, and found it fascinating that someone who has had so much influence on the art world has been virtually unknown for so long.

And here's what CJ had to say ... 

Throughout the 20th century, Chesley Knight Bonestell Jr. was a highly influential and important artist, often referred to as "the father of modern space art". Chances are, if you're even remotely familiar with space art, you've seen some of Bonestell's work, but probably didn't know his name. Chesley Bonestell was born in 1888 in San Francisco. While he had been making astronomical paintings since 1905 (after seeing Saturn through a telescope), though space would not become the central focus of his art until the mid-20th century.

On August 26, 2019, the Museum of Flight held a "space art" event. Among the activities occurring that day was a screening of Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future, a documentary about Bonestell's life and career. The Museum of Flight's website described the documentary as follows:

The amazing story of Chesley Bonestell, a forgotten artist who worked on the Chrysler Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, movies like “Destination Moon,” and then helped inspire America’s space program with his futuristic paintings. His mesmerizing depiction of "Saturn As Seen From Titan" became known as "the painting that launched a thousand careers."

Told by the people who were influenced by or knew Chesley personally, and punctuated with rare interview with Chesley himself, this documentary chronicles the extraordinary, nine-decade life of a quiet, artistic visionary, whose beautiful paintings continue to inspire us to reach for the stars.

Among the first publications that Bonestell illustrated for was a "railway magazine", a(n antiquated) type of magazine designed to encourage people to move to the western states, usually via train. Due to pressure from Bonestell's grandfather, Bonestell moved to the field of architecture, where he would design the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City. Bonestell also made elaborate illustrations of what would become the Golden Gate Bridge, to promote the concept to potential funders. Later, Bonestell began designing complex "matte paintings" for notable films such as Citizen Kane (1940). Matte paintings would sometimes be used in place off backdrops that would be highly expensive and time-consuming to build.

Beginning in the late 1940s, Bonestell began making illustrations of scenes in space for various magazines, among them Life Magazine. Bonestell's illustrations often depicted astronauts (when present) as tiny explorers in the vast expanse of space (or even just a single planet). Bonestell's illustrations of space inspired many people to pursue careers as astronauts, or otherwise work in the field of space travel. While Bonestell died several years ago, many of his paintings depict astronauts exploring areas and planets (such as Mars) that humans have still yet to set foot on. Until then, Bonestell's paintings represent the future.

On our way out of the museum, we got to see a mural that was so new, we could still smell the paint drying! Done by Henry, whose murals are famous throughout the Seattle area, the larger than life work depict animals who have played a role in the space race.

And here's another shot, with the kids this time, for scale.