Artist: Lowell Nesbitt (American, 1933–1993)
Title: Moon Shot
Date: 1969
Medium: 8 color lithographs on black paper
Credit Line: Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, gift of Marilyn Arnold Palley and Reese Palley, 1996.45.10–17

In 1962, James E. Webb, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), noted in a memorandum that “…we should consider in a deliberate way just what NASA should do in the field of fine arts…”[1] Since the first rocket launch at Cape Canaveral in 1950, numerous photographers documented these events, and Webb’s proposal to document NASA’s excursions into space not only through photography, but through artists’ eyes, sparked what would become NASA’s Artist’s Cooperation Program, commonly called the NASA Art Program.^[2]

The NASA Art Program invited artists to see the behind the scenes of each mission, allowing for documentation of not only what was broadcast on television, but also the preparation and the aftermath of each launch inside the NASA space centers in Cape Canaveral and Houston.[3]

With the help of Hereward Lester Cooke, Curator of Painting at the National Gallery of Art, and James Dean, Deputy Director of NASA’s Media Development Division, Webb’s idea came to fruition with the first group of seven commissioned artists arriving at Cape Canaveral in May 1963 to capture the Mercury-Atlas 9 launch.^[4]

The artist Lowell Nesbitt (1933–1993) was invited to join the NASA Art Program to document the Apollo 9 mission in March 1969 and the Apollo 13 mission in April 1970. As a NASA artist, Nesbitt joined Norman Rockwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and others who participated in the program.

Nesbitt, who was well-known for large-scale, hyperrealistic flower paintings, produced a varied array of works during his two years at NASA, including the Moon Shot print series in 1969.^[5] Moon Shot consists of eight color lithographs on black paper, seven of which show the Moon’s surface from varied distances, while an eighth print contains quotes from Apollo astronauts.

The Moon Shot prints were based on images of the Moon’s surface, supplied by NASA. Although NASA generally imposed few rules on artists, Nesbitt was not allowed to alter the images, and his prints closely resemble now-famous photographs taken by Apollo astronauts, particularly an iconic image of Buzz Aldrin’s boot print that documented one of humans’ first steps on the Moon.[6]

In the Moon Shot prints, the illusion of depth within the Moon’s surface is represented through the layering of Nesbitt’s gestural forms and scrawled lines atop black paper, which itself creates the darks and shadows of his image. Additional subtle blues and greens distinguish the prints from their more monochromatic photographic counterparts.  Based closely on photographs, Moon Shot is distinct among works created for the NASA Art Program, many of which were based on direct observation inside the Space Centers. Lowell’s prints serve as a testament to NASA’s emphasis on documentation.

The 1960s was a period of rapid technological innovation against the backdrop of a space race that compelled the United States to put a man on the Moon before 1970.[7] The obsession with space exploration pervaded pop culture, as evidenced through space-centered media, such as the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which remains largely popular today, and the animated television series The Jetsons, which premiered in 1962.[8] NASA itself was no exception in its desire to produce media that popularized space as a subject matter while also promoting its achievements.  

In the catalogue NASA/Art: 50 Years of Exploration, Curator Hereward Lester Cooke lays out the stakes of the NASA Art Program. He writes, “First, NASA is anxious to document the space effort in every way possible…I am convinced that artists should be key witnesses to history in the making, and that in the long run the truth seen by an artist is more meaningful than any other type of record…I want to build up a collection of drawings and paintings which will convey to future generations some of the excitement and wonder that we feel as we cross the space threshold.”[9] The catalog contains a selection of works from the NASA Art Program between 1963 and 2007 and includes everything from landscapes outside the launch site to astronauts getting fitted for their spacesuits. The wide variety of subject matter included in artists’ commissioned works shows how completely artists fulfilled the role of “witness” to any happenings within NASA’s buildings, as they were granted access to what seems to be the entire grounds. Nesbitt’s large-scale oil painting of the VAB Bay (Vehicle Assembly Building Bay), painted during the Apollo 9 commission, is included in this publication.^[10] Nesbitt’s Moon Shot lithograph series is not, however, featured in major publications documenting the program, perhaps because of Nesbitt’s lesser prominence compared to other artists of this period, or because the works were created as a series rather than standalone pieces representing a specific Apollo mission (reference photographs for Moon Shot span multiple Apollo missions).

NASA still partners with artists on occasion, but not on the scale of the program between 1963 and December 1972, when Apollo 17 launched. In 1975, NASA’s art collection of 2,091 works was transferred from NASA’s headquarters to the Smithsonian’s new National Air and Space Museum.^[11] 

Nesbitt’s final contribution to the world of space-centered media comes in the form of a silk screen poster commissioned by the National Air and Space Museum for its July 1976 opening, closing out Nesbitt’s brief yet impactful period of artistic creation focused on the United States’ Moon-centric moment in history. 
– Collection Spotlight by Kelsey Carroll, 2023-24 Block Curatorial Intern

Bibliography

“Biographical Note: A Finding Aid to the Lowell Nesbitt Papers, circa 1903–1993, Bulk 1950–1993.” Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/AAA.nesblowe.pdf

Cooke, Hereward Lester, and James D. Dean. Eyewitness to Space; Paintings and Drawings Related to the Apollo Mission to the Moon, Selected, with a Few Exceptions, from the Art Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1963 to 1969). New York: H.N. Abrams, 1971.

Frackman, Noel. Lowell Nesbitt, An American Realist: 1962–1983 (Oklahoma Art Center, January 18–March 4). Edited by Dan W. Wheeler. New York: Oklahoma Art Center and the Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1983.

Kennedy, Randy. “When the Space Age Blasted off, Pop Culture Followed.” New York Times, September 25, 2007.

Rosson, Lois. “The Art of Air and Space.” National Air and Space Museum, August 4, 2016. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/art-air-and-space

“Lowell Nesbitt, Simulator (1970).” National Air and Space Museum Collection Objects. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/simulator/nasm_A19770026000

“NASA Art Program.” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Accessed February 2024. https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/nasa-art-program.

Nesbitt, Lowell. Lowell Nesbitt, an Autobiography: January 23–February 21, 1976. New York: Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1976.

“What Was the Space Race?” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, August 23, 2023. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/what-was-space-race.

Notes

[1] “Lowell Nesbitt, Simulator (1970),” National Air and Space Museum Collection Objects, accessed February 28, 2024, https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/simulator/nasm_A19770026000. Webb’s memorandum to Hiden Cox, then NASA Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs, after NASA Headquarters was presented with an oil portrait of astronaut Alan Shepard by Bruce Stevenson. Shepard was the first United States astronaut to travel into space. Stevenson’s Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C., and is reproduced in the publication NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration (James D. Dean and Bertram Ulrich, 2008).

[2] Hereward Lester Cooke and James D. Dean, Eyewitness to Space: Paintings and Drawings Related to the Apollo Mission to the Moon, Selected, with a Few Exceptions, from the Art Program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (1963 to 1969) (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1971), 11. 

[3] The John F. Kennedy Space Center is in Cape Canaveral, Florida and the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is in Houston, Texas.

[4] Hereward Lester Cooke and James D. Dean, Eyewitness to Space, 16.

[5] “Biographical Note: A Finding Aid to the Lowell Nesbitt Papers” Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.  

[6] Noel Frackman, Lowell Nesbitt, An American Realist: 1962–1983 (Oklahoma Art Center, January 18-March 4), ed. Dan W. Wheeler (New York: Oklahoma Art Center and the Andrew Crispo Gallery, 1983), 21.

[7] “What Was the Space Race?,” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, August 23, 2023, https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/what-was-space-race.

[8] Randy Kennedy, “When the Space Age Blasted off, Pop Culture Followed,” The New York Times, September 25, 2007.

[9] Hereward Lester Cooke and James D. Dean, Eyewitness to Space, 12.

[10] Nesbitt’s VAB Bay is reproduced in Eyewitness to Space (Hereward Lester Cooke and James D. Dean, 1971) and NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration (James D. Dean and Bertram Ulrich, 2008). In addition to VAB Bay,the select contributions credited to Nesbitt across print and digital publications include a second large oil painting of a lunar mission simulator and a collection of eight screenprints in the Ulrich Museum of Art (search ‘Nesbitt, Lowell’ in ‘Artist/Makers’) showing scenes from inside the Space Center at Cape Canaveral prior to the Apollo 9 launch.

[11] “Lowell Nesbitt, Simulator (1970),” National Air and Space Museum Collection Objects, accessed February 28, 2024, https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/simulator/nasm_A19770026000.