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Vija Celmins is a master of subtle visual power. She is best known for her captivating paintings and drawings depicting galaxies, lunar surfaces, desert floors, oceans, and spider webs. Her works are not monumental; they are painted with a restrained palette and defy quick vision. But once you get involved with them, your gaze gets caught and they unfold their fascination and great beauty. This catalogue presents all 90 works exhibited at the Fondation Beyeler. Several commentaries by the artist on her works are inserted between the image pages, most of them published for the first time. Contributions by renowned authors and artists including Julian Bell, Teju Cole, Rachel Cusk, Marlene Dumas, and Glenn Ligon open up new perspectives on the artist's impressive oeuvre.
Vija Celmins (*1938, Riga) emigrated to the United States with her family in the late 1940s. She studied fine arts at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana and attended a summer course at Yale University in 1961 before earning a master's degree at UCLA. She has had solo exhibitions in numerous museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Menil Collection in Houston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1996, she was introduced to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1997, she received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, and in 2023 the Praemium Imperiale.
Summary
Vija Celmins is a master of subtle visual power. She is best known for her captivating paintings and drawings depicting galaxies, lunar surfaces, desert floors, oceans and spider webs. Her works are not monumental; they are painted with a restrained palette and defy quick vision. But once you get involved with them, your gaze gets caught and they unfold their fascination and great beauty.
This catalogue presents all 90 exhibited works of art as well as a selection of documentary photographs. Several commentaries by the artist on her works are inserted between the image pages, most of them published for the first time. Contributions by renowned authors and artists such as Julian Bell, Teju Cole, Rachel Cusk, Marlene Dumas and Robert Gober open up new perspectives on the artist's impressive oeuvre.
Vija Celmins (*1938 in Riga) emigrated to the United States with her family in the late 1940s. She studied painting and printmaking at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana and attended a summer course at Yale University in 1961 before earning a master's degree at UCLA. She has had solo exhibitions in numerous museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Menil Collection in Houston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 1996 she was introduced to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1997 she received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.
