By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

PARK SLOPE — Blasting off at the popular Brooklyn Frame Works Gallery, in Park Slope for a dozen years, is the new “Outer Space 2.0� exhibit of antique astronomical prints, space-program and science fiction-movie posters, and various ephemera that will send visitors into an artistic orbit.

As bottles of Harpoon’s “UFO beer� were served at the opening show reception on Friday evening at the gallery and framing shop at 142 Fifth Ave., owner George Winter watched his son play with his robots on display and a Solaris sci-fi movie video played. It was the later American version based on the Russian original.

“I’ve had an interest in the space program since the Apollo manned moon landings and enjoyed movies as varied as 2001 and Plan Nine from Outer Space. And I am a space items collector,� he said. Near him was a poster for the 1950s sci-fi movie Space Master X-7 starring Bill Williams (and Moe Howard of the Three Stooges in a minor role).

The current exhibit, on view through June 28, came about because of popular demand after the first “Outer Space� exhibit in the fall of 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Space Age. The first earth satellite, the Russian Sputnik I, was orbited on Oct. 4, 1957.

“The public wanted to see more. Their interest in outer space is strong, with all the movies, books, and real space flight and exploration,� said Winter, a School of Visual Arts graduate who had a not-for-sale sketch he did as an art student on display. His “Evolution of Flight� depicts the Wright Brothers’ first airplane taking off at Kitty Hawk in 1903 and the first space shuttle Columbia launching from Cape Canaveral in 1981.

You Will Go To the Moon

He opened an old children’s book from the late 1950s, the age of the Sputnik, Vanguard and Explorer satellites, the creation of NASA, and orbital flights by dogs and chimps. The book, You Will Go to the Moon by Mae and Ira Freeman, illustrated by Robert Patterson, told a story, as Winter flipped its pages. A vintage postage stamp commemorating the first human space flight on April 12, 1961 with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, 27, was on display showing the historic Vostok I rocket launching.

On the opposite side of the gallery were framed antique astronomical prints dating back as early as 1823, when the Milky Way galaxy was believed to be the entire universe. The British engraving, called “Astronomy — The Moon in Her Mean Libration,� was printed 123 years before the first radar signal was bounced off the Moon and 136 years before the Soviets sent a probe crashing on the lunar surface.

Among sci-fi movie posters on display and also for sale were for 1950s flicks such as Flight to Mars—50 Years Into the Future and Battle Beyond the Sun. Among the ephemera was a collection of vintage sci-fi pulp magazines from the age of Astounding Stories and Amazing.

Winter’s Brooklyn Frame Works shop offers the latest state-of-the-art custom-framing services on its premises. It has been Winter’s career passion since he and co-founder Corinne Jacobsen, who has since moved on, started it back in 1997. “We specialize in high-quality conservation with linen backing for the best in preservation of the frame and for artworks,� Winter said.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., closed on Mondays. For more information on the “Outer Space 2.0� exhibit and sale, visit www.brooklynframeworks.com or call (718) 399-6613.

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