Museum Ludwig in Cologne presents a retrospective of the artist’s remarkable work
Vija Celmins, Untitled (Web 4), 2002
Drypoint and photogravure on paper, 51.1x61cm
© 2002 Vija Celmins and Gemini G.E.L. LLC
Courtesy McKee Gallery
Webs are an appropriate subject for Vija Celmins’ images. Reworked from photographs and built with painstaking precision, sometimes over years, her drawings, charcoals, etchings and woodcuts have a similar, ethereal presence. As the artist explained in 1997: “I found some scientific images of webs at the Natural History Museum. Very exciting. I thought these webs described the space I always wanted to describe – a surface that has small facets that rigorously account for and record every intersection; a lived-on surface. Also, it was an emotional image that would draw people in, so the carefully accounted for space was contrasted with an emotional melancholic image. You know I like that combination of contrasts – a sort of double reality”.
The title of the retrospective at Museum Ludwig refers to Celmins’ other enduring themes: desert, sea, and stars. Whilst there is a cosmic sense of time about such elemental subject matter, it also allows the artist to approach space and light in a singular way. Celmins rejected an early interest in painting objects, becoming dissatisfied with the conventional space they occupied. Instead, these subjects allow the artist to explore the relationship between deep space and the flat plane of the picture’s surface. Influenced by Ad Reinhardt’s Twelve Rules for a New Academy (1953), Celmins started to consciously strip away elements in her art: “I had rejected gesture and composing – obviously, I’m composing, but in a vary toned down way. I’d given up colour. I’d given up a big size, which we all wanted so badly… I threw away a lot of the stuff that naturally went into painting. I wanted to make it lean. As you can see, the work gets a little flatter as time goes by.”
Vija Celmins: Timeline
1938 – Born in Riga, Latvia
1948 – Immigrated and settled in Indiana
1965 – MFA in painting, University of California. Dickson Art Center, UCLA, first solo exhibition
1966 – Took part in the ‘Artists Tower of Protest’ against US involvement in Vietnam
1980 – Guggenheim Fellowship
1992 – Retrospective, ICA, Philadelphia
1996 – American Academy of Arts and Letters Award
2009 – Fellow Award in the Visual Arts from United States Artists
2011 – Wüste Meer und Sterne, Ludwig Museum, Cologne
Exhibition Details:
Wüste Meer und Sterne (Desert, Sea, and Stars)
15th April-17th July 2011
Museum Ludwig
Heinrich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Köln
Further Reading:
Vija Celmins biography and documentary at PBS Art21
Simon Grant’s 2007 interview (quoted above) at TATE ETC. magazine
Ad Reinhardt – ‘Twelve Rules for a New Academy’ (summarised)