Nathan OliveiraWings of Consciousness

“Stanford and the Windhover Paintings,” clip from Nathan Oliveira Oral History (2009), Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program Interviews (SC0932). Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources, Stanford, CA.

Nathan Oliveira envied the freedom of birds in flight, soaring high above and seemingly detached from earth. In the mid-1980s, the artist began exploring the shape of a bird wing as a metaphor for the mind: “The catenary curve can become the circular curve of the earth. I want to show how the mind can transport itself beyond the barriers of the ground.” 1 On large canvases—the scale reflecting the grandness of their spiritual nature—Oliveira painted wings with zoological precision and vigorous brushwork, refining and abstracting the concept of flight.

  1. Hilarie Faberman, Nathan Oliveira: “The Windhover”: Recent Wing Paintings and Related Works (Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 1995), 3. ↩︎