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PBS series probes moon museum caper

8 June 2010 - by ArtfixDaily Staff
PBS' History Detectives investigates whether artwork by Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and other major artists is on the moon, and releases a special online video asking for help in locating the elusive Grumman engineer "John F.," who purportedly smuggled the "Moon Museum" aboard Apollo 12 in November 1969. Pictured here is an identical ceramic mini-canvas, which sparked the story after Tampa, FL art curator Jade Dellinger purchased the curious piece in an online auction. PH
PBS' History Detectives investigates whether artwork by Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg and other major artists is on the moon, and releases a special online video asking for help in locating the elusive Grumman engineer "John F.," who purportedly smuggled the "Moon Museum" aboard Apollo 12 in November 1969. Pictured here is an identical ceramic mini-canvas, which sparked the story after Tampa, FL art curator Jade Dellinger purchased the curious piece in an online auction. PH

Did a tiny art museum secretly get launched to the moon? Evidence is emerging that a miniscule piece of pop art got smuggled aboard the Apollo 12 lunar module in 1969. The ceramic chip was embedded with original sketches by six artists including Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Rauschenberg.

PBS' History Detectives is investigating the story in its season eight premiere, which airs June 21. Host Gwen Wright, a professor of architecture at Columbia University, interviews New York artist Forrest "Frosty" Myers whose idea it was to send the miniaturized museum to the moon.

The story began to unfold recently when Florida art curator Jade Dellinger purchased an identical mini-canvas at an online auction and contacted PBS.

The doodles---from a minimalist line by Rauschenberg to a Mickey Mouse rendition by Oldenburg---were supposedly shrunk to chip-size then placed aboard the Apollo 12 by a mysterious Grumman engineer named "John F.".

PBS is asking viewers to help unravel the whole story, begin by watching the online video at www.pbs.org/HistoryDetectives.

 


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