San Francisco Peaks, 8' x 3', Mixed-Media, Acrylic, and Film Strips on Canvas, 2011, by Nova Hall. Provenance: Original Flying Over Time Art Collection.

San Francisco Peaks mixed-media painting by Nova Hall. An immense 8-foot tall by 3-foot wide canvas depicting the Spirit of St. Louis navigating deadly Arizona thunderstorms near Flagstaff. Incorporates Southwest symbols and 1927 Donald A. Hall Estate Archive film strips. Developed under Leandro Soto using Arte Povera and Robert Rauschenberg assemblage techniques. A highly significant narrative piece for aviation museums and contemporary art collectors. — San Francisco Peaks, 8' x 3', Mixed-Media, Acrylic, and Film Strips on Canvas, 2011, by Nova Hall. Provenance: Original Flying Over Time Art Collection. · Nova Hall

Towering at an overwhelming 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide, San Francisco Peaks is a colossal vertical narrative that visualizes Donald A. Hall Sr.’s greatest, secret fear. While history fixates on the Atlantic, Hall was terrified of the deadly, high-altitude springtime thunderstorms near Flagstaff, Arizona, knowing the Spirit of St. Louis lacked the ceiling to fly over them. The canvas is a violent, vertical shear of freezing blue skies and a massive, churning red thunderhead threatening to swallow the silver monoplane. Grounded by the red, jagged peaks at the base and embedded with authentic estate film strips falling like rain, the painting investigates the chilling realization that the flight’s most lethal threat lurked not over the ocean, but over the American Southwest. Viscerally executed in the Arte Povera tradition, it is a masterclass in scale and historical suspense.