Sky Garden (Stoned Moon) 1968

Robert Rauschenberg made this print, Sky Garden (Stoned Moon), as part of his series "Stoned Moon" which documented the Apollo 11 launch in 1969. Made during the height of the Cold War and the Space Race, Rauschenberg was one of the few artists granted access to the NASA launch site. In this print, Rauschenberg mixes silkscreen images of the rocket with diagrams of its parts and Florida landscapes. But beyond the technological optimism of the time, there is a sense of wonder and perhaps irony. "Stoned Moon" is a play on words, contrasting the high-minded ambitions of space travel with the counterculture's altered states of consciousness. Rauschenberg invites us to contemplate the simultaneous possibilities of technological advancement and social change, the collective dream of a nation reaching for the stars, while grounded in the realities of earthly existence.