Night Wing View 1 Analysis

Art work neatly lines the being colored walls of a standard sized room in the University of Arizona’s Museum of Art. Hanging next to an oil painting of a vibrant rainbow gracing the sky of what could easily be downtown Tucson, is a piece of art work the elegantly displays the stark black wing of a plane gliding over a town or city that’s been brought to life with small dots of color. That piece of artwork is American Artist Yvonne Jacquette’s “Night Wing View 1”, a 15-color screenprint published in 1992. Jacquette has “made a specialty out of depicting landscape as seen from an airplane. With the popularization of air travel during the second half of the 20th century, this view became common.” (Getlein 149). The artist’s use of color, line, shape and placement turns the ordinary view out of a plane …show more content…
The thick, solid black wing of the airplane breaks up the color and provides a startling and sharp contrast to all the color down below, sealing the viewer’s eye momentarily. In order to create a focal point, the plane’s wing is placed directly over the spot where the color is most abundant, thus providing the sharpest contrast. Because the wing is a large and solid shape, placing it above small dots of color that are spread out not only provides phenomenal contrast, but also balances the painting visually. The large, solid, and heavy black wing over the mass of smaller but brightly colored and cluster of lights below balance each other out. The wing keeps the blinding array of color and light from being too overwhelming, while the colors provide enough of a contrast to keep the painting interesting. The artist continues this theme throughout the screenprint by pitting