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Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Trevor Paglen

Untitled (Reaper Drone)

2010

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Trained as an artist and as a geographer, Trevor Paglen creates photographs that blur the lines between science, art, and journalism, often focused on that which cannot be seen, such as hidden or secret military sites. In Untitled (Reaper Drone), he captured a dramatic section of the Nevada sky in the early hours of the morning using a telephoto lens. The tiny black speck in the lower right corner of the golden, cloud-filled sky is a Reaper drone, an unmanned aircraft operated by military personnel, out of a remote base in Nevada. While the artist’s attention to atmospheric qualities evokes both nineteenth-century Romantic landscape painting and modernist abstraction, overtly connecting with earlier artistic investigations into the concept of landscape, his work also draws meaningful parallels between modernist abstraction and the increasingly abstract state of contemporary warfare. [Permanent collection label, 2013]

  • Artist Trevor Paglen (American, b. 1974)
  • Title Untitled (Reaper Drone)
  • Date 2010
  • Medium Chromogenic color print
  • Edition description 5/5
  • Dimensions image | 48 x 60 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 2012
  • Object number WU 2012.0001

The Autonomous Future of Mobility
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 11/02/2020 - 03/12/2021

To See Without Being Seen: Contemporary Art and Drone Warfare
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/29/2016 - 04/24/2016

Moving Parts: Time and Motion in Contemporary Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/09/2014 - 08/31/2014

4/26/2012
Metro Pictures (New York, NY)

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

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