Tribute to Robert McCall

Robert McCall, space artist, in front of a part of the “Celebrating One Hundred Years of Powered Flight” fresco that he painted for NASA’s Dryden Center.
Credit: NASA

Robert McCall passed away at the age of 90 in Scottsdale, Arizona, on 26 February 2010. Admired for his painting and particularly noted for his works based on the space theme, his name is not necessarily known to the general public. And yet, dozens of millions of people have seen his creations!
It was he who painted the famous film poster for the unforgettable sci-fi masterpiece 2001, Space Odyssey: the one where a futuristic space shuttle comes out of a wheel-shaped orbital station. The artist worked with NASA numerous times, and his works have even been reproduced as stamps.

From left to right: the official patches for the Apollo 17 lunar mission and space shuttle flights STS-1 and STS-3. Just part of the work that Robert McCall was to perform for NASA.
Credit: NASA

Robert McCall designed mission patches for the American Space Agency, including that of the inaugural flight of the first space shuttle. He also created two monumental frescoes for NASA which now adorn the Langley Center in Virginia and the Dryden Center in Edwards, California. And as far as large format is concerned, let us not forget the famous 6-story high “Space Mural” which is displayed in the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. It is estimated that a dozen or so million people see this outsized painting every year...

Robert McCall - Expanding the frontier of flight - NASA

In Virginia, NASA’s Langley Center is home to a superb horizontal fresco by Robert McCall. Spanning a width of more than 5 m, it is entitled “Expanding the Frontier of Flight”.
Credit: NASA

In the federal capital of the United States, the Air and Space Museum has a monumental, 6-story high painting by Robert McCall, known by the name of “Space Mural”.
Credit: National Air and Space Museum

It would however not be fair to restrict the artist to these grandiose creations even though they are outstanding. With more than 400 space paintings, Robert McCall has always featured an optimistic vision of future astronavigation, and this in all honesty, as on more than one occasion, he voiced his opinion that mankind would finish by living somewhere other than Earth. He managed to express this flight to the stars even on the smallest of canvasses devoted to the present, as in this superb “Reaching for the Stars” below.

Robert McCall - Reaching for the Stars - EPCOT

The “Reaching for the Stars” painting celebrates the STS-1 mission, the first space plane flight. Wearing brown suits, we recognise astronauts John Young (in the foreground with a technician) and Robert Crippen who were both at the controls of the space shuttle Columbia. This painting is exhibited in the American Adventure pavilion in the Epcot theme park at Florida’s Walt Disney World which is about an hour’s drive from the Kennedy Center.Credit: Marie Ange Sanguy

To discover more about this fascinating artist who used his brushes to immortalise the biggest adventure and promises of mankind, you can visit his official website and his fabulous on-line museum.
The NASA video below pays tribute to Robert McCall. The American Space Agency has also set up an on-line art gallery.

Enjoy Space portfolio "Off to the stars with Robert McCall"

Published 2 March 2010

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