Czech Mate

Antony Donaldson’s father was a fighter-pilot, tragically killed in action in 1940, and along with his two brothers, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order from George IV during the Second World War. It follows that Donaldson himself has always had a keen interest in airplanes: producing a series of paintings: ‘Fly low, fly fast and turn left’ derived from a series of photographs Donaldson took at the Reno National Championships in Nevada in 2008, and from which the present work comes. Here, he depicts ‘Czech Mate’: a former Yak 11 training aircraft used by the Soviet Army. The plane had been purchased by veteran pilot Sherman Smoot from the Egyptian Air Force, and transformed into a racing plane.