Loose in Some Real Tropics - Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” Projects - 1969-70

Aug 24, 2026

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An exhibition centered on Robert Rauschenberg’s 1969–70 “Stoned Moon” projects traces how his Cape Canaveral trip informed a body of work built from NASA materials, press images, technical documents, and recollections of Florida’s tropical landscape. It presents thirty-four lithographs plus related collages, drawings, and working notes for the unpublished Stoned Moon Book, alongside source materials and creation photographs. The show interprets the Apollo launch as a pivotal encounter between technology, art, and American cultural identity in the 1960s.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages44

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Exhibition at Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Stoned Moon Series

Stoned Moon Book

Stoned Moon Book Text

Stoned Moon Drawing

Art in Context: Stoned Moon Drawing

Rauschenberg at Gemini G.E.L., 1969

Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” Projects, 1969–70 Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” Projects, 1969–70 CONTENTS 5 Introduction 8 Exhibition at Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University 12 Stoned Moon Series 26 Stoned Moon Book 35 Stoned Moon Book Text 58 Stoned Moon Drawing 64 Art in Context: Stoned Moon Drawing 73 Rauschenberg at Gemini G.E.L., 1969 Photographs by Malcolm Lubliner Robert Rauschenberg at Gemini G.E.L., 1969 Photograph by Malcolm Lubliner INTRODUCTION In July 1969, Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008) traveled to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to witness the launch of the first manned space flight to the moon. He was one of seven artists invited to document the mission as part ofa National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) art program designed to increase public interest in space exploration. After returning to his Manhattan studio, Rauschenberg drew from crateloads of official NASA photographs, press releases, and technical documents, as well as tourist maps and brochures and his own recollections of the space center and its tropical setting, to capture the launch of Apollo 11, one of the most iconic events of the twentieth century. The resulting Stoned Moon projects comprise a series of thirty-four lithographs and an array of collages and drawings the artist made for Stoned Moon Book, which was never published. Loose in Some Real Tropics: Robert Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon”Projects, 1969–70 brings together examples of these works along with a sampling of Rauschenberg’s source materials and working notes and a selection of photographs documenting the creation and debut of the Stoned Moon Series lithographs. The exhibition draws its title from a line in a serialized account of the Apollo launch penned for Life magazine by Norman Mailer, who wrote of his own experience at Cape Canaveral: “He was loose in some real tropics at last with swamp and coconut palms. It was encouraging. Technology and the tropics were not built to hide everything from each other.” Like the Mailer quotation, the Stoned Moon works—which layer scenes of astronauts and rockets, imagery of the lush Floridian landscape, and depictions of complex machinery—illuminate an important moment in artistic, scientific, and American history. Capturing the sensory overload of the Apollo era, Rauschenberg’s Stoned Moon projects highlight the impact of technological innovation on American culture in the 1960s and prompt reexamination of the ways technology continues to shape our relationships with the natural world. THE EXHIBITION Exhibition at Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University December 20, 2014 to March 16, 2015. This exhibition was organized for the Cantor Arts Center by James Merle Thomas (PhD, Art History, Stanford University, 2014) in close collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. On view with a selection of Stoned Moon lithographs were drawings and text for the unpublished Stoned Moon Book, as well as the summary collage Stoned Moon Drawing. Exhibition installation photographs courtesy Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University T H E E X H I B I T I O N 9 T H E E X H I B I T I O N 11 STONED MOON SERIES Based on more than thirty unique compositions Rauschenberg created during a brief but intense period after leaving Cape Canaveral, the thirty-four lithographs in Rauschenberg’s Stoned Moon Series were produced in collaboration with Ken Tyler, a master printer at Los Angeles–based Gemini G.E.L. studios. Alternately colorful and subdued, the prints range in scale from just over two feet to more than seven feet high. The largest and most complex work in the series, Sky Garden, represents an extraordinary technical achievement in printmaking, requiring one lithographic stone, four aluminum plates, and a silkscreen to produce the scale and visual effects the artist sought. At eighty-nine inches in height, Sky Garden was thought to be the largest hand-pulled lithograph ever cre

FAQs

What inspired Rauschenberg’s “Stoned Moon” projects?

In July 1969, Robert Rauschenberg traveled to Cape Canaveral to witness the first manned moon flight and documented the mission through a NASA art program, using official NASA photographs, press releases, and technical documents alongside his own recollections and tourist materials.

What artworks are included in the “Stoned Moon” projects?

The projects comprise thirty-four lithographs, along with an array of collages and drawings made for the unpublished Stoned Moon Book, plus working notes and photographs documenting the lithographs’ creation and debut.

How does the exhibition connect the works to American and scientific history?

By layering astronauts and rockets with imagery of lush Florida landscapes and complex machinery, the Stoned Moon works illuminate the Apollo era as a moment where technological innovation reshaped American culture and prompted new ways of thinking about relationships between technology and the natural world.

Aug 24, 2026

Upload by Riley