Vija Celmins
Night Sky / Beetle, 1990
Since the ancient world, bestiaries have been used to catalog and describe collective knowledge on …
Vija Celmins creates subtle, often delicate, monochromatic paintings, drawings and prints based largely on her own photographs of the desert, sea, night sky, and other natural phenomena. Using graphite, erasers, electric erasers and charcoal dust among other tools and materials, Celmins investigates the nature of physical and metaphorical presence, as well as the spatial implications of drawing. There is a sense of quietude and wonder in much of the work, and a notable banishing of any direct human presence. Her serial explorations of a single subject include the Mojave Desert in the U.S., a place she has often photographed, and a spider’s web.
Since the ancient world, bestiaries have been used to catalog and describe collective knowledge on creatures and other natural elements (i.e. rocks). Illustrated bestiaries grew in popularity during the Middle Ages, often pairing the animal with a moral lesson. This reflected the allegorical Christian belief that each …
Vija Celmins creates subtle, often delicate, monochromatic paintings, drawings and prints based largely on her own photographs of the desert, sea, night sky, and other natural phenomena. Using graphite, erasers, electric erasers and charcoal dust among other tools and materials, Celmins investigates the nature of physical and metaphorical presence, as well as the spatial implications of drawing. There is a sense of quietude and wonder in much of the work, and a notable banishing of any direct human presence. Her serial explorations of a single subject include the Mojave Desert in the U.S., a place she has often photographed, and a spider’s web.
