There is a surprising amount of art on the moon. There’s a whole museum, allegedly – although it’s very hard to confirm it’s really up there. Who’s going to check? You? Me?
The Moon Museum is pretty small as museums go – it’s a piece of ceramic wafer, 19 by 13mm in size. It contains tiny images from six artists, and it’s attached – allegedly – to the Apollo 12 Lunar Module, Intrepid. That means it’s been up there and open to visitors since November 1969.
Nice museum! What about sculpture? There’s some sculpture on the moon too. I first discovered the Fallen Astronaut several years back in the beautiful, mind-expanding Phaidon book, Universe: Exploring the Astronomical World. Buy this book. I am not being paid to say that. I am compelled. Universe is one of those books I would rescue from my house if it was burning – a massive thing that shuffles together images from space exploration and scientific study with artefacts that speak of humanity’s response to the cosmos over the last few thousand years.
