Belgian artist of ‘Fallen Astronaut’ figurine on the moon dies at 99

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The Belgian sculptor is now thanks to the statue of the “fallen space pioneer” that he left on the moon in 1971.

Artist Paul Van Huydung died On Saturday (May 3) at his home in Wigngij, Antwerp in Belgium, according to a statement issued by his family. It was 99.

“Paul went home safely this afternoon,” read the note on his Facebook page.

On August 2, 1971, like NASA Apollo 15 Space pioneers concluded a third of their three trips on the moon, the mission leader David Scott put a small aluminum character and a panel accompanying her near where he was stopping the moon Rover for the last time. Although Scott did not mention this while he was the moonThe statue of the “fallen space pioneer” revealed as soon as he and his colleagues, Jim Irwin and Alurne, returned on Earth.

“We left a small memorial on the moon’s surface about 20 feet to the north [the lunar rover] “There is a simple painting with 14 names, and these are the names, in the alphabetical order, for all astronauts and astronauts who died in the pursuit of space exploring.”

“Nearly a small figure representing an astronaut fell,” he added.

Three years ago, Van Hoeydonck reached the idea of ​​the microcredit to celebrate the “Humanity Rishing into space”. After making adjustments to the sculpture to meet the requirements of NASA and the purpose of reformulating as a honor to the space explorers who made the final sacrifice, Van Huidonk met with Apollo 15 Space pioneers to deliver his creation a month before their launch.

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– Apollo Program: How NASA sent astronauts to the moon

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– NASA honors the pioneers of the fallen space with the “Anniversary Day” party

“I didn’t think this would happen at all. Of course I was interested in all this, but being an artist, he thought it was possible to put one of my statues on the surface of the moon?” Van Huydung said in an interview with Space Weiss Light magazine at the 2015 British Space Society.

Compliance with NASA’s requirements not to market the statue, Scott did not reveal the artist’s name. It was not until a replica of the “fallen space pioneer” was not requested and displayed in the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space in Washington, DC, where the role of Van Huidonk in The Tribute became publicly.

Van Hoeydonck’s plans to sell the symmetrical copies of its statues were postponed after Scott and NASA expressed their concerns about the exploitation of the memorial. (Van Hoeydonck, in partnership with the Breckner exhibition at Düsseldorf, Germany, re -created the idea of ​​the original artist of 1969 of the statue and A limited group of 1971 has been marketed Signature and numbered pieces in 2019.)

In 2021, Scott reprimanded Van Huidonk’s involvement, Writing in a note The statue of the “fallen space pioneer” that he left on the moon may “fabricated by NASA employees.” He said that the design “was based on” standard stick numbers “that were accepted globally in the late 1960s as a site for bathrooms.”

Scott wrote that before the mission there was no contact at all or knowledge outside NASA staff with regard to this project. “

Whether that Huidonk is not attributed to the “fallen astronaut” on the moon, his other space sculptures were displayed in Milan, Tokyo and in Goghnheim in New York City. The axis of the 2020 documentary was also “The Pioneer of the Fall Space”, on “a statue that dies on its way to the moon.”

He was born on October 8, 1925 in Antwerp, Belgium, and Van Huydonk studied at the Institute of Art History in his mother city and at the Institute for the History of Art and Archeology in Brussels.

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