Friendships & Collaborations · 1969–2008
Robert Rauschenberg
"…of all the great achievements of the space program the one that stands out in my mind is sitting with you, at midnight, on that grassy mound next to the giant Saturn 5 rocket watching it get filled with fuel and ready for its blastoff next morning, taking Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil, Buzz and Mike to the first Moon landing."
— James D. Dean, in a letter to Robert Rauschenberg, written days before Rauschenberg's death, May 2008
Source: Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Instagram
In the summer of 1969, two men sat together on a grassy mound beside a Saturn V rocket at Kennedy Space Center, watching it fill with fuel in the small hours before dawn. One was Robert Rauschenberg — among the most celebrated American artists of the twentieth century. The other was James D. Dean, founding director of the NASA Fine Arts Program, the man who had placed the invitation in Rauschenberg's hands. They were there to witness the launch of Apollo 11, carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the first Moon landing.
What began as a professional arrangement — artist and program director — became something far more durable. The friendship between James Dean and Robert Rauschenberg would span nearly four decades, outlasting the Apollo program itself, enduring through career changes on both sides, and leaving traces in archives that researchers are still exploring today.
The Invitation
The NASA Fine Arts Program, which James Dean founded in 1962, was premised on a simple but revolutionary idea: that artists could capture dimensions of the space age that photography and journalism could not. Dean, working alongside Hereward Lester Cooke of the National Gallery of Art, assembled a remarkable roster — Rockwell, Warhol, Leibovitz, Wyeth, and many others. But Rauschenberg held a particular place among them.
Rauschenberg had long been captivated by flight and space. Works from the early 1960s — Overcast I (1962) and Retroactive II (1963) — already incorporated imagery of rockets, astronauts, and celestial bodies. He first heard of the Apollo 11 opportunity through a friend in early 1969; by April he had received a formal invitation from Dean. In his first letter, Dean enclosed Apollo 8 lunar flight maps, writing that more materials would follow. According to Smithsonian curator Carolyn Russo, Dean "bestowed on Rauschenberg enriching and sometimes unprecedented source materials" — an early indication of his admiration for the artist and his willingness to act as a genuine collaborator.
Cape Canaveral · July 1969
Rauschenberg arrived at Kennedy Space Center for a four-day stay in the days before the launch. He was given a NASA badge and escorted through the facilities alongside scientists and engineers. Where other artists made sketches on site, Rauschenberg did something different. Dean recalled that Rauschenberg "simply sat quietly in front of the gigantic rocket, chewing on a blade of grass, taking in the sounds and sights around him." No sketches — only absorption.
Dean was at his side through those days and that midnight vigil. The memory of it never left either man.
James Dean · Rita Dean · Robert Rauschenberg · Betty Foy (Secretary to National Gallery Director J. Carter Brown)
Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC · October 1972
Rauschenberg: Stoned Moon Series Exhibition
Photo courtesy of Steve Dean
The Stoned Moon Series · 1969–70
Back in Los Angeles after the launch, Rauschenberg threw himself into work. The result was the Stoned Moon series (1969–70), thirty-three lithographs made at the Gemini G.E.L. print studio, drawing on NASA photographs, technical schematics, and other source materials provided by Dean. The crown jewel of the series — Sky Garden (Stoned Moon) (1969) — stands nearly ninety inches tall. At the time of its making it was the largest hand-pulled lithograph ever produced.
The administrative paperwork that underwrote this great work has its own quiet poetry. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives holds a purchase order dated April 7, 1969, authorizing an $800 stipend for Rauschenberg's artist services. A follow-up letter from Dean to Rauschenberg reads, with characteristic practicality: "Before a check can be sent, I am told, we need a note from you saying something like 'For services rendered — Apollo launch, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, July 1969…$800.'" Rauschenberg complied, and the typed note — with exactly those words — sits in the archive today alongside Dean's letter.
The Rauschenberg Foundation's Stoned Moon exhibition at the Fendrick Gallery in Washington, DC in October 1972 brought Dean, his wife Rita, and Rauschenberg together again in celebration of the work the two had helped bring into being.
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
In Memoriam · James D. Dean
Instagram · 2024
"Rauschenberg and Dean remained lifelong friends,
as evidenced by the wealth of correspondence
in the Rauschenberg Archives."
After Apollo · The Correspondence Continues
Rauschenberg returned for the final lunar mission. He attended the Apollo 17 launch in December 1972 — the last time humans would travel to the Moon — and Dean was characteristically encouraging. A NASA Routing Slip in the Rauschenberg Archives, dated August 2, 1972, carries a handwritten note from Dean: "Bob — Apollo 17 will be even better."
When Dean left NASA in 1974 to become the first Curator of Art at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, the professional relationship shifted — but the friendship did not. Dean oversaw the transfer of approximately 2,000 works from the NASA Art Program to the Museum's permanent collection, including the Museum's special print of Sky Garden (Stoned Moon). He continued corresponding and collaborating with Rauschenberg throughout his years at NASM and well into retirement.
The range of that correspondence is captured in a small, endearing detail noted by the Rauschenberg Foundation: a letter from Rauschenberg's assistant Terry Van Brunt to Dean requested information on whether heat tiles from the Space Shuttle could be obtained, and added that "Bob is still interested in owning a Moon rock.… Also, is there any 'Moon dust?'" Obviously, Dean couldn't help with that particular request — but it speaks to the ease and warmth of a friendship in which almost anything could be asked.
From the Rauschenberg Archives
All the Small Things: Receipts and Ephemera in the RRF Archives — Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, November 2025
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Archives holds a purchase order dated April 7, 1969, from NASA to Rauschenberg, authorizing $800 for his "artist services." The archive also contains a follow-up letter from James Dean requesting Rauschenberg's signed receipt — "For services rendered: Apollo launch, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, July 1969" — alongside Rauschenberg's typed reply using exactly those words. A NASA Routing Slip dated August 2, 1972, carries Dean's handwritten note: "Bob — Apollo 17 will be even better."
The Foundation notes that these receipts and slips of paper, taken together with the broader correspondence between the two men, are among the richest archival records of any artist's relationship with the NASA Art Program. "Rauschenberg and Dean remained lifelong friends, as evidenced by the wealth of correspondence in the Rauschenberg Archives."
Source: rauschenbergfoundation.org
A Timeline of the Friendship
Dean invites Rauschenberg to attend the Apollo 11 launch at Kennedy Space Center. The two spend the days before the launch together at the Cape; Dean provides NASA photographs, lunar flight maps, and other source materials that will become the foundation of the Stoned Moon series.
Rauschenberg creates the Stoned Moon series at Gemini G.E.L. in Los Angeles — thirty-three lithographs responding to the Apollo 11 launch. Sky Garden (Stoned Moon) (1969), the largest in the series, is acquired by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
Dean writes to Rauschenberg ahead of the Apollo 17 launch: "Bob — Apollo 17 will be even better." Rauschenberg attends the launch — the last crewed lunar mission. The Stoned Moon series exhibition opens at the Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC, in October, attended by James Dean, Rita Dean, Rauschenberg, and Betty Foy of the National Gallery of Art.
Dean leaves NASA and joins the Smithsonian as Curator of Art at the National Air and Space Museum, overseeing the transfer of the NASA Art collection — including Sky Garden (Stoned Moon) — to the museum. Correspondence with Rauschenberg continues throughout his tenure.
Rauschenberg is among the first eight artists invited to witness the Space Shuttle Columbia launch under the revived NASA Art Program. Dean, now retired from NASM and working as a painter and Space Shuttle Art Program contributor, remains a touchstone in Rauschenberg's relationship with NASA.
Robert Rauschenberg dies on May 12. In the days before his death, James Dean writes to him of their midnight vigil beside the Saturn V rocket in July 1969 — the memory that stood out, above all the great achievements of the space program, as the one he would never forget.
Sources & Further Reading
— Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Instagram tribute to James D. Dean
— "All the Small Things: Receipts and Ephemera in the RRF Archives" — Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, November 2025
— "All Engines Running. Liftoff!" — Interview with NASA historian Lois Rosson, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, July 2025
— "How Robert Rauschenberg's Art Brought NASA Missions to Life" — Carolyn Russo, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2026
— Stoned Moon — Art in Context, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
— Carolyn Russo, The Ascent of Rauschenberg: Reinventing the Art of Flight — Smithsonian Books, 2025
