Tonight, across the world, people will be going to space-themed parties to celebrate Yuri’s Night, an annual event honoring Yuri Gagarin – the first person to survive space flight. Here is a gallery of art celebrating his great adventure.
50 years ago today, Yuri orbited the Earth. He returned home to his native Soviet Union as an international hero, and spent the next eight years touring the world, touting the USSR’s great Cosmonaut program. Though he died in a tragic plane crash in 1969, thousands of artists remember him in art devoted to his flight – and humanity’s quest to one day journey far into space and find new homes among the stars. Here we’ve collected some gorgeous examples of art celebrating Yuri’s Night – and Yuri himself.
Want to find a Yuri’s Night celebration in your area? They’re happening in cities from Bogotá, Columbia, to Mountain View, California. Check the party list on the official Yuri’s Night site.
Top image by Angel Ifc
A commemorative stamp celebrating Yuri’s flight, from
Sculpture at Yuri’s Night party. Photo by Declan McCullagh.
Soviet architecture inspired by a rocket. Photo by Frederic Chaubin. See more of Chaubin’s photography of Soviet architecture.
Russia’s “Park of Memory,” featuring what looks like a crashed space capsule. Photo by Frederic Chaubin. See more of Chaubin’s photography of Soviet architecture.
Light sculpture from Yuri’s Night party, Silicon Valley. Photo by Jason Unbound.
Light sculpture from Yuri’s Night party, Silicon Valley. Photo by Jason Unbound. Light sculpture from Yuri’s Night party, Silicon Valley. Photo by Jason Unbound.
A monument to Yuri in Russia. Photo by Slavophile.
Pablo Picasso painted this for Yuri after his flight in 1961.
By Robert Lindsay. See more from the exhibition, called Countdown to Yuri’s Night.
“The Raygun Gothic Rocketship”, a statue at Yuri’s Night Bay Area (now permanently installed in San Francisco). via NASA
Russian statue commemorating Yuri. Photo by Yuriy Lapitskiy.
By Todd Gardner. See more from the exhibition, called Countdown to Yuri’s Night.
By Todd Gardner. See more from the exhibition, called Countdown to Yuri’s Night.
