There’s a U.S.-U.K. space race to get art to the moon
Plus: Why Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is the modern Mona Lisa
Hello, in this week’s issue we’ll look at…
There’s a U.S.-U.K. space race to get art to the moon
Why Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is the modern Mona Lisa
March For Our Lives wrote “Thoughts And Prayers” in bodybags on the National Mall
RIP to the father of the GIF
There’s a U.S.-U.K. space race to get art to the moon
American artist Jeff Koons and Dubai-based British artist Sacha Jafri are both planning to send art to the moon this year, but only one will get there first and earn the title of first authorized art on the moon. NASA is involved with both.
Jafri’s work is a heart design on an aluminum plate covered in gold that’s titled “We Rise Together — with the Light of the Moon” (2022) that was announced in February.
Koons’ work, the NFT project Moon Phases, was announced Tuesday. The collection will include NFTs and corresponding sculptures that will be left on the moon. There’s no preview of any of the work in Moon Phases, but Koons said in a video announcing the collection that he’s “always enjoyed the idea of creating a global art, art that really is about every human beings’ aspiration to have a more fulfilling life.”

Pace, Koons’ gallery, said in a statement the work will be the first authorized art on the moon, and the mission it’s expected to get to the moon on, the Nova-C, is scheduled for mid- to late-2022, according to NASA. Jafri’s work is expected to get to the moon “later this year,” according to a press release.
Both artists’ work are being carried to the moon thanks to NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services, a public-private initiative to contract with companies to develop landers and rovers.
The reason the artists are touting their work as the potential first “authorized” or “official” art on the moon is because two unauthorized works have been there before.

“The Moon Museum” (1969) was a ceramic tile with drawings by Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, David Novros, Forrest Myers, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Chamberlain attached to the Apollo 12 without authorization, and “Fallen Astronaut” was an aluminum sculpture by Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck that was left at a memorial to 14 fallen astronauts and cosmonauts by the crew of the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.
Why Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe is the modern Mona Lisa

A 1964 silkscreen of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol is expected to set a new sales record for 20th century art when it goes to auction in May, auction house Christie’s said.
“Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” (1964) is based on a publicity photo from Monroe’s 1953 film “Niagara.” Christie’s described the work as a modern “Mona Lisa,” and they’re asking for $200 million.
Christie’s chair of 20th and 21st century art Alex Rotter said in a statement the portrait is the “most significant painting to come to auction in a generation,” and compared it to Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Sandro Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” as “categorically one of the greatest paintings of all time.”

It’s being sold by the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, and all proceeds from the sale are going to the foundation, which supports child healthcare and educational programs.
“Andy Warhol’s picture of Marilyn, surely now more famous than the photograph on which it is based, bears witness to her undiminished visual power in the new millennium,” Georg Frei, chairman of the board of the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation said in a statement. “The spectacular portrait isolates the person and the star: Marilyn the woman is gone; the terrible circumstances of her life and death are forgotten. All that remains is the enigmatic smile that links her to another mysterious smile of a distinguished lady, the Mona Lisa.”
In other Warhol news, the Supreme Court said Monday it would hear the copyright dispute Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts v. Lynn Goldsmith about whether images Warhol made of Prince based on a 1981 photo by Goldsmith were transformative enough.
March for Our Lives wrote “Thoughts And Prayers” in bodybags on the National Mall

To send a message to Congress and mark four years since the March for Our Lives, the gun reform group spelled out “Thoughts And Prayers” in black bodybags on the National Mall last Thursday.
“We often hear politicians again again, 'we send our thoughts and prayers' and today we wanted to reverse that message to show them the cost of just sending those thoughts and prayers without acting, which are these people,” said David Hogg, the activist who survived the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
More than 1,100 bodybags were used, each representing more than 150 deaths for the more than 170,000 people who’ve been killed by gun violence in the U.S. since the Parkland shooting.
March for Our Lives is calling for Congress to take federal action on universal background checks. An April 2021 Pew poll found 81% of Americans support background checks for private gun sales and gun shows, including a majority of Democrats and Republicans.
“We aren’t divided on this issue, Congress is divided on this issue because there are special interests involved that don’t want them to act to protect our young people from violence,” Hogg told NBC 4 Washington.
RIP to the father of the GIF
Steve Wilhite, a computer programer who invented the GIF while working at CompuServe in 1987, died on March 14 at 74 from COVID-19.
His Graphics Interchange Format animated the early internet, and the GIF experienced a resurgence in the 2010s on sites like Tumblr, Twitter, and BuzzFeed. In 2012, Oxford Dictionaries named GIF its word of the year, and in 2013, Wilhite won a Webby lifetime achievement award for his invention. He said his favorite GIF was of a dancing baby.
RIP to an American icon.