Ellery Kurtz studied at Bronx Community College, New York, and had developed an interest in science and space exploration, which he combined with his career as an artist. He participated in an experiment examining how paintings respond to zero gravity and other conditions of space, including extreme G-forces during takeoff and temperature variations in the cargo bay. In 1986, during a NASA mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, four of Kurtz’s semi-abstract oil on linen paintings were carried in a canister into orbit for 98 days; the paintings showed no visible signs of degradation. Kurtz said, “All artists are concerned with permanence…That’s part of what the experiment is about, whether my paintings can withstand that kind of stress…Where man goes, art should go.”
