Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa has announced the creation of an epic art project called #dearMoon, and his Instagram feed shows his long-standing passion for art and interest in space.
As part of #dearMoon, Maezawa booked the first passenger trip around the moon aboard SpaceX's giant BFR, known as the "Big Falcon Rocket" or "Big F------ Rocket," as he and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced last night (Sept. 17). [How SpaceX's Passenger Flight Around the Moon Will Work]
And his interest in space stretches further back. In January 2016, Maezawa shared two Instagram posts from the Apollo program that first carried humans to the moon: an image caption discussing Apollo 8, and a photograph of the Apollo 14 module, which was the third spacecraft to put humans on the moon's surface.
But from Maezawa's Instagram feed, what makes even more of an impression than his interest in space is his deep love for art. Maezawa has turned his entrepreneurial earnings into a respected art collection, and he often shares images from art museums with his followers.
Those include an image of a painting he owns and sent on tour by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom he referred to during his remarks announcing the #dearMoon project.
In general, Maezawa seems to favor modern and contemporary art. Other posts he has shared highlight artists like Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder and Mark Rothko.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
