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Edition of 80
Image size: 14 1/4 x 16 3/4 inches (36.2 x 42.5 cm)
Paper size: 20 1/2 x 22 7/8 inches (52.1 x 58.1 cm)
Frame size: 22 1/2 x 24 3/4 inches (57.2 x 62.9 cm)
Signed “V.Celmins” lower right and numbered lower left in graphite
(Inventory #33945)
In 1991, Vija Celmins created a linoleum cut using her iconic imagery of a night sky. For this work, she carved directly into the block, creating small circles of varying sizes, all with minutely irregular edges. Some circles are closely grouped, others have more space, while others are overlapping so as to create irregular forms. Amongst these ‘dots’ is one seemingly out-of-place mark – a diagonal line with much stronger definition at one end than the other. Looking at the composition abstractly, this line seems incredibly out of place, but amazingly, the mark serves the opposite function when viewed as a figurative image – all those circles become stars and the line becomes a comet.
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.
10 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116
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