Yvonne Jacquette: Autumn Expansion

Streaming video - 2015

The American painter and printer Yvonne Jacquette is best known for her aerial landscapes of cities and towns, which incorporate distinctive brushwork. Yvonne Jacquette: Autumn Expansion, filmed in 1981, explores the artist's creative process as she creates a triptych that is approximately 26 feet wide, commissioned by the General Services Administration for the Federal Building and Post Office in Bangor, Maine. In order to familiarize herself with the subject, Jacquette examined many aspects of forestry, walked through the site itself, and even spent five hours in a plane over the area, studying the changing light. Her triptych follows the life cycle of autumn foliage, from its green beginnings to its vibrant, fiery peak, and ultimate...ly to its subdued end. Jacquette named the work during the creative process, noting the expanding nature of the autumnal color palette. Jacquette was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1934 and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1952 to 1956. Her works can be found at several national museums including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Jacquette has taught at Parsons School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Skowhegan School, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, and was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1990. more