Homage To The Encounter Of ESA’s Giotto Probe With Comet Grigg-Skjellerup, by Charles Wilp

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This limited-edition, signed art print by German artist Charles Wilp celebrates the ESA space probe Giotto’s encounter with comet Grigg-Skjellerup on 10 July 1992. This marked the first time a spacecraft had visited two comets, and at the time was the closest comet fly-by at 124 miles from the nucleus.

Giotto was the European Space Agency’s (ESA) first deep-space mission. Its destination was primarily Halley’s Comet, which is a short period comet visible from Earth every 75 years. The spacecraft was not expected to survive this encounter, but amazingly Giotto‘s instruments remained intact enough to extend the mission to intercept a second comet, Grigg-Skjellerup.

To commemorate this achievement, ESA asked Wilp to create a piece of artwork that could be reproduced as mementos, art prints, and posters. Wilp created a piece called ‘Homage to Deep Space’ using only materials used in space technology, such as Kapton film, which was then sealed in Stycast. The original artwork measured 71″x47″. It represents the comet Grigg-Skjellerup with its nucleus and two tails and the Giotto spacecraft.

Charles Wilp was a German advertising designer and artist. He had family connections to Wernher von Braun and Rudolf Nebel, both important figures in German rocketry, who influenced Wilp’s interest in aerospace. He studied under Man Ray in New York and counted Andy Warhol, Yves Klein, and Joseph Beuys as personal friends. Wilp was one of the first artists to make work using space age materials, and he even had work flown in space on the Russian space station Mir. Wilp also made several zero-gravity flights himself, and referred to himself as an “artronaut”.

19.5″x13.5″
Limited-edition signed print #102 of 200.
Comes with protective envelope signed by artist and three ESA senior officials.

In stock

SKU: HORNS-4 Category:
 

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