
Vija Celmins
Untitled (Ocean Woodcut), 1995

Woodcut
Sheet size: 16 x 14 inches
Frame dimensions: 18 x 15 7/8 inches
Printer and publisher: …

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.


Woodcut
Sheet size: 16 x 14 inches
Frame dimensions: 18 x 15 7/8 inches
Printer and publisher: Grenfell Press, New York
Catalogue reference: MMA 38
Edition size: 47, plus proofs
Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, lower margin

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.