Butler leader to be at opening of show by moon walker

YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Louis Zona, executive director and chief curator of the Butler Institute of American Art, will attend this week’s opening of an exhibition by artist and former astronaut Alan Bean at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon during Apollo 12 in 1969. After 18 years as an astronaut, he retired in 1981.

Bean’s art exhibition in Gallery 211 presents a view of the Apollo journeys through the eyes of the first artist to visit another planet. Bean uses an impressionistic style in his works of lunar landscapes, portraits of fellow astronauts and moon walkers and views of Earth from space. Bean’s artwork reveals a world that only he and 11 others have visited.

The exhibit combines both art and artifacts as it includes the technology part of this achievement with an artist’s account of a new frontier.

A book is being published in conjunction with the art exhibition and features essays by art scholars and NASA officials. Dr. Zona is among the contributors. Currently two of Bean’s paintings are on exhibit at the Butler. He had a show at the museum in 2005.

Visit the Web site, http://wwww.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal211/alanbean to see show highlights.