Can You Name This Piece of Art?

[Jen Staggs]

Do you know where it is right now?  Can you name the six different artists contained on this piece??

[Jen Staggs]

Moon Museum, with drawings by six leading contemporary artists of the day: Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, David Novros, Forrest "Frosty" Myers, Claes Oldenburg, and John Chamberlain. The Moon Museum was supposedly installed on the moon in 1969 as part of the Apollo 12 mission.

I say supposedly, because NASA has no official record of it; according to Frosty Myers, the artist who initiated the project, the Moon Museum was secretly installed on a hatch on a leg of the Intrepid landing module with the help of an unnamed engineer at the Grumman Corporation after attempts to move the project forward through NASA's official channels were unsuccessful.

Myers revealed the exhibition's existence to the New York Times, which published the story Nov. 22, 1969, two days after the Apollo 12 crew had left the moon--and the Intrepid--and two days before they arrived back on earth. Here's the photo from the story:

According to Myers, who was involved with E.A.T. on the Pepsi Pavilion project at the time, the six drawings were miniaturized and baked onto an iridium-plated ceramic wafer measuring just 3/4" x 1/2" x 1/40", with the assistance of engineers at Bell Labs.

According to the Times, the artworks are, clockwise from the top center: Rauschenberg's wavy line; Novros' black square bisected by thin white lines [in 1969, Novros also created the incredibly rich, minimalist fresco on the s...]; a computer-generated drawing by Myers; a geometric mouse by Oldenburg, "the subject of a sculpture in his current show at the Museum of Modern Art" [a sculpture which is in MoMA's permanent collection, btw]; and a template pattern by Chamberlain, "similar to one he used to produce paintings done with automobile lacquer." Warhol's contribution, which is obscured by the thumb above, is described as "a calligraphic squiggle made up of the initials of his signature."

Actually, it's a drawing of a penis. Here are some other photos by Frosty Myers, published, I believe, with a 1985 Omni Magazine article by the arts writer Phoebe Hoban. That would be the Warhol Penis there in the upper right.

As the NASA spokesman told the Times when asked about the Museum infiltration, "I don't know about it. If we had been asked, it sounds like something we'd have very much interested in [sic]. If it is true that they've succeeded in doing it by some clandestine means, I hope that the work represents the best in contemporary American art."
[emphasis added for ironic amusement, though to Myers' credit, it turned out to be a pretty good grouping of artists to have involved.]

[Richard Canard]

26.05.11 Dare Ms. Jen Staggs, Oh..& so I see that Skybridge S. has already fully answerd your puzzle . Sorry about that...Richard is forever dilly-dalling & not paying proper attention... Richard Again

[Richard Canard]

26.05.11 Dare Ms. Jen Staggs,  I like the games you play--always amusing & insightful ..  If memory serves...maybe  I do know a little something about this one. ..Do not remember all the artists involved but this little item was sent to the moon via the NASA program  (under somewhat unoffficial circumstances??).  The MIckey Mouse item is  a Claes Oldenberg .Robert Rauschenberg was also maybe a  participant but don't know which piece & Andy Warhol's in the penile-like initials in the upper left hand corner.  All best to you & your playful vision. Sighed & signed Richard Carnard 

[Jen Staggs]

YAY!!  AWESOME!!  YOU WIN my own version of a IUOMA Museum piece!  I'll send it out asap.  Waaahoo!

[Jen Staggs]

Hint: These are world-famous artists from the 1960s.  Another hint: This art is out of this world.

[Jen Staggs]

Not Fonzie, but it is a Mickey Mouse of sorts...