The Art of NASA

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for an eARC of The Art of NASA.

This book is full of a gorgeous illustrations !

A perfect gift for the young or old space lover in your life.

In a world where books showing off the concept art to any two-bit genre film sell for good money, I rather think it about time the NASA space program had the same. This fills in just what many a shelf may well have wanted without realising it – the concept art the space scientists needed to engender their own ideas, and the publicity imagery used to fire the public's imagination. The first two chapters have a remarkable breadth – going from either all-black or at best duotone art in newspapers and other publications, while TV was generally black and white, to the Apollo moon landings, in just a few short pages. Since then we have not got anywhere near a Chris Foss behemoth of a spaceship – the likes of which many a young sci-fi fan would have dreamt – but we have had the Hubble to give us imagery of a kind to make the early depictions of extraterrestrial space here look like cave paintings.

Those short chapters are just that – it feels that as many words were used in the captions as the main core of the text – but this not a definitive space history, even if it might still teach some laymen a few things. We are here for the artworks, however, and it's all covered, from basic ideas of what became Mercury and Gemini, to slightly fantastical Shuttles, what we are told is a black hole where copious high and mighty space stations got ditched as they would never have been affordable, to the current crop of visual thoughts concerning Martian landings. It's wonderful to see all this official artwork, from NASA and the people who designed and built all the craft and implements, but it's also awkward and disappointing to see so much space history alongside so much that remains just a potential future for us all, with every chance of not being realised. A strong four stars.

Both sides of the space race were defined by iconic artwork. In The Art of NASA, Piers Bizony curates 200 images from NASA's archives, investigating how the agency sold space to Congress and a sceptical public. Even today, when space exploration is a reality, and humans have lived in space for 20 years, these images are powerful and inspirational. A great book to keep on your coffee table for those moments when you need a bit more space in your day!

Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher, Motorbooks, for providing me with a review ebook of "The Art of NASA".

"The Art of NASA: The Illustrations That Sold the Missions" by Piers Bizony is a fantastic collection of nearly 200 outstanding NASA space related illustrations. Each of these illustrations is worthy of framing and displaying around the home or office. The electronic version that I reviewed had comfortably high quality graphics, so I assume that the 12 inch by 12 inch hardcover version of this book would also be aesthetically pleasing. Each illustration includes a detailed caption including the date, artist if known, and the contextual information that enables the reader to understand the relevance and history. The collection is logically organized into a preface and five chapters: "FIRST COMES THE DREAM: How Art Showed the Way to Space", "1 THIS NEW OCEAN: The Dawn of the American Space Age", "2 ONE GIANT LEAP: The Voyages of Project Apollo", "3 ISLANDS IN THE SKY: Inhabiting the Realm of Earth Orbit", "4 BRAVE NEW WORLDS: Back to the Moon & Toward the Red Planet", "and "5 THE EXPANSE: Exploring Depths of Space Beyond Mars." In addition to the captions, the book includes clear prose that describes the accomplishments and background at each stage of the book.

As one might expect, the illustrations include spacecraft, astronauts, the moon, moon rovers, Skylab, Spacelab, The International Space Station, robotic probes, space colonies, etc. One might think that some of the older illustrations from the 1950's or 1960's would feel dated, however, this is absolutely not the case. Some of the more modern illustrations are photo-realistic CGI. The artwork in this book evoked feelings of awe and adventure that usually only come from reading the best space travel science fiction stories.

I enjoyed reviewing this book, and am planning on ordering one as a Christmas present for a family member. I am also planning to order a print of one of the illustrations as a self-Christmas present! It is very easy to rate this book with a full five stars.

Just when you think you’ve seen all that you can about the history of NASA, along comes this unique, sublime collection that takes your breath away.

Artists from the various companies that worked with NASA from the early days of Mercury & Apollo through to Skylab and the ISS are all part of a unique history that is overlooked and now, quite rightly, gets to shine in the spotlight. The images are majestic in their glorious visions of what was possible to aim for. A lot of these forgotten illustrations were used to promote the agency and the individual programmes to the public, inspiring generations with the wonders of what exists outside the boundaries of our planet. Bizony has selected images that don’t just look back at an interesting & exciting period of science & imagination but that look towards the future with the ambitious challenges of the desirable Martian missions.

I was continually amazed looking at the creative illustrations on a tablet while reading this proof, so I know that the print version would be joyous. This would make an incredible gift for any wannabe astronaut.

Do you love space? Or even just have a mild interest in it? Well, The Art of NASA is not just for the avid space fanatic.

The Art of NASA is separated into 5 different chapters. This New Ocean, One Giant Leap, Islands In The Sky, Brave New Worlds, and The Expanse. Each one chronologically explores space travel, with historic artwork from each era just fascinating to look at. From diagram of how the Mercury space capsule work to future idea of how we one day may build spaceship to ship off humans to distant planets; a plethora of art has been curated.

Each artwork has a brief description of the artist and what it is about, so that you are never completely lost as to what you are looking at. These artworks have only one way to describe them in my opinion. They are stunning. I am amazed that I have never seen some of the early artwork around the Apollo era as they have set up modern space exploration. It is extremely unfortunate that back in the initial days of space exploration, keeping records of these artworks was not a priority so many will have been lost if not for a handful of enthusiast who have collected some over the years.

A worth-while coffee table book that most home would benefit from having.

So grateful to Motorbooks publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read an e-copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book is a treasure! Whether you're interested in space, NASA, technology, history, or art, this book will please you.
Bizony has preserved some incredible images; including works by great artists like Robert McCall and Pat Rawlings. As well as some incredible plans and conceptions for technological plans for NASA.

I thoroughly enjoyed this trip through history, and highly recommended it!

NASA has a department of artists to fill their communication portfolios needed to convince the public and their management of planned projects. This 191 pages thick coffetable hardcover book selects 200 illustrations from the dawn of the space age, starting 1954, through Mercury/Gemini/Apollo times, the Skylab, Space Shuttles, and the ISS, up to contemporary times with SpaceX and the future looking forward to visiting Mars, rediscovering the Moon, and even more futuristic projects. Every chapter comes with a motivating text of a couple of pages, and the pictures are thoroughly explained.

The art styles differ from retro 50s paintings up to modern computer based artistry. Some of them illustrate technical concepts like the layers of space suits, or the Apollo docking procedure. Others show events that never happened, like a spacewalk from Gemini IX flying a AMU backpack, or illustrate something that was never photographed, like having two astronauts in one Moon picture - cf. the cover art -, or a Space Shuttle glowing red from the entrance into Earth's atmosphere. 

NASA fans will find the place for this volume, and the given price tag is surely worth it, and I mostly admired the early art, when reality didn't restrict the artists like we have it with a flood of photos now.