Part 3 Project 2 Research Point 2

Vija Celmins b 1938

Vija Celmins (1)

Celmins became a painter in 1962 after several years of exposure to various sorts of art. By 1965 she had developed a way of working from photographs and layering her work until there was some considerable distance from the original photograph and the work was independent. (2)

Sources of inspiration are the natural world; the sea, the sky, stones and even spiders webs.  Her style seems to be to "copy" but she defends this by saying that she "re-describes the object imperfectly" (3)

The Tate has the artist's proof of a work called Sky.

Sky - Viga Celmins, 1975
Lithograph on paper  (4)

The Tate webpage

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/celmins-sky-p78334/text-summary

gives lots of interesting information about the series of four works that Sky belong to.  It refers to her almost exclusive use of grey and her "meticulous and time consuming technique, depicting the surface texture of areas of sky and desert ground which completely fill the picture plane, unbroken by horizon, building or any form of life".

I find skies fascinating and there is always something to look at that doesn't need anything to support it.
Perhaps that is in Celmins mind.

To Fix the Image in Memory - Vija Celmins, 1977-82 (5)

In a Vimeo interview (3) Celmis talks about her work To Fix the Image in Memory.  She made bronze casts of rocks found on walks in North Mexico and then painted them to resemble the original rock. She calls them "imperfect".

Celmis understands the challenge her work poses and in the interview she defends her position.




(1) http://www.usafellows.org/fellow/vija_celmins

(2) http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vija-celmins-2731

(3)  http://vimeo.com/22299024

(4)  http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/celmins-sky-p78334/text-summary

(5)  http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=100210