Vija Celmins
SPIDER WEB, Vija Celmins (screen print of spiderweb)
2009

Name: SPIDER WEB, Vija Celmins (screen print of spiderweb)
Brand: Vija Celmins
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This screen print depicts one of Celmins' signature subjects, the spider web, which she has represented in various media, including charcoal, oil paint, and multiple printmaking techniques. One screenprint on wove paper by Vija Celmins, 2009, signed in pencil, dated and numbered from the edition of 117 (total edition includes 18 artist's proofs), Image: 277 by 329 mm, 10 7/8 by 13 inches, sheet size: 442 by 482 mm, 17 3/8 by 19 inches, with the blindstamp of the printer, Brand X Editions, New York. Published by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., New York Please note this print is unframed. The framed image is for reference purposes only. A master of several mediums, including oil painting, charcoal, and multiple printmaking processes, Vija Celmins’ work depicts renditions of natural scenes with uncanny accuracy and attention to detail. Her meticulously rendered images that convey solitude, stillness, and the indeterminacy of life lack a specific point of reference, horizon, or discernible depth of field and become limitless spaces, lending each image a sense of wonder and discovery.

Creator:

Vija Celmins (1939, American, Latvian)

Creation Year:

2009

Dimensions:

Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 19 in (48.26 cm)

Medium:

Screen

Movement & Style:

Photorealist

Period:

2000-2009

Condition:

Gallery Location:

New York, NY

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU33014332922

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Vija Celmins

Visual artist Vija Celmins is renowned for her extraordinarily detailed Photorealist paintings, prints and drawings of natural phenomena, from the surface of the sea to spiderwebs.

After immigrating to the United States from Latvia with her family in the late 1940s, Celmins found herself drawn to images in American comic books. Their word balloons and narrative captions proved important to the development of her English language skills, and the books' images would also leave a lasting impression as Celmins took to drawing at a young age.

As a budding artist, Celmins studied the fine arts at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana, Yale University and UCLA, where she began drawing everyday objects found around her studio — much like the Pop artists of the era — such as a lamp and a heater as well as photographs from World War II, which haunted her early memories. She visited New York City as a student to see the works of Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Over time, Celmins developed a fascination with science and, in particular, scientific images, leading to her painting her famous natural subjects, from the night sky to the desert floor. One global event that particularly captivated her was the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, which provided the world with photographs of our celestial neighbor. She began drawing the surface of the moon from those images.

“The images are not from observations of nature but are ‘found images’ from old magazines, books and photos,” said Celmins. “Thus they are already flattened and a step removed from nature. My work lies between intimacy and distance.”

Celmins’s first retrospective was held at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in 1962. She has since been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Menil Collection in Houston. Today, she lives and works in New York.

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