Starlog Photo Guidebook – Space Art (1978) by Ron Miller

Neal Armstrong was not the first person to set foot on the Moon. Hundreds of thousands of men, woren, and children had already been there and were watching that historic television broadcast in 1969 just to see if NASA’s discoveries would live up to the visions we had already seen. Earlier visions had been supplied, not by scientists, but by artists – by Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, and Rolf Klep, among others. These painters and illustrators had engaged in an important human process called extrapolation.

Strictly defined, extrapolation means to infer an unknown from something that is known. In the visual arts, the process of inferring leads to more than just guesses and reasoned conclusions – it leads to realistic pictures. Viewers can do more than appreciate the abstract speculation of scientists and astronomers, we can see them in concrete reality.

Space artists make it possible for us to walk on the Moon.

Good extrapolation requires a keen mind – one that can understand the frontiers of knowledge in the various sciences involved, and can fill in the gaps with reasoned assumptions that are not out of line with the known facts.

And, of course, the professional space artist must also be a master of rendering techniques and possess a vivid sense of imagination, of wonder, and of the Romantic spirit.

If one saw a classified job ad that listed the necessary skills for a space artist position, most good artists would find that they need not bother to apply.

Space artists are special people, miles above the arbitrary splashers and dribblers who clutter Madison Avenue galleries, yet the artistic abilities of space artists have never received the serious attention and praise from critics that they deserve. And their cultural contributions – their inspiration to scientists and to the public – have likewise remained unrecognized.

It is toward correcting that error that this book is dedicated – the first ever devoted exclusively to space art.

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