Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)
When traveling by air, Yvonne Jacquette prefers a window seat. She uses this elevated perspective to create sketches of aerial views that she then transforms into paintings. Based on her sketches and studies of the New York-Newark metropolitan area, Jacquette created a composite image for this painting and incorporated slight shifts in scale and perspective. Her composition captures the experience of an air traveler’s mesmerizing, disorienting view and invites viewers to look beyond the airplane’s wing and into the deeper, dreamier space below.
The first-known, aerial-view photograph was taken in 1858 by French photographer Nadar, who captured the streets of Paris from a hot air balloon. While many artists have explored aerial views in their work, this technology has also served practical functions like capturing battlefield imagery and assisting with city planning.
tags: perspective, map, movement, observation, technology, light, airplane, flight
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