Tuesday, May 10, 2011

An Artist of Limitless Space

Vija Celmins (1938-) is an extraordinary visual artist. Celmins' early works were astonishingly realistic paintings of objects such as kitchen appliances and airplanes.

She has always had a great eye for detail regardless of the media. She has produced ultra-realistic works in oils, charcoal, pencil, sculpture and print. It is hard to imagine such control in some of those media which are not considered conducive to fine workmanship.

Celmins has evolved in her drawings and paintings. Nowadays,her works give no reference to the viewer of horizon or central points of interest. It is all about the vastness. The viewer knows that even though the scene is cropped, it actually extends well beyond the limitations of the frame.

Below are more recent completed works from her various series based on seas, night skies and webs.







































6 comments:

  1. It's hard to believe those are not photos. She must have great patience. I'd like to see them in person because I can't figure out why she is creating photo realism. Linda.

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  2. The water is fabulous.

    jhh

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  3. I love her work. Thanks for the reminder. AR

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