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Vija Celmins Prints and Multiples

American, Latvian, b. 1938

Visual artist Vija Celmins is renowned for her extraordinarily detailed Photorealist paintings, prints and drawings of natural phenomena, from the surface of the sea to spiderwebs.

After immigrating to the United States from Latvia with her family in the late 1940s, Celmins found herself drawn to images in American comic books. Their word balloons and narrative captions proved important to the development of her English language skills, and the books' images would also leave a lasting impression as Celmins took to drawing at a young age.

As a budding artist, Celmins studied the fine arts at the John Herron School of Art in Indiana, Yale University and UCLA, where she began drawing everyday objects found around her studio — much like the Pop artists of the era — such as a lamp and a heater as well as photographs from World War II, which haunted her early memories. She visited New York City as a student to see the works of Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

Over time, Celmins developed a fascination with science and, in particular, scientific images, leading to her painting her famous natural subjects, from the night sky to the desert floor. One global event that particularly captivated her was the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, which provided the world with photographs of our celestial neighbor. She began drawing the surface of the moon from those images.

“The images are not from observations of nature but are ‘found images’ from old magazines, books and photos,” said Celmins. “Thus they are already flattened and a step removed from nature. My work lies between intimacy and distance.”

Celmins’s first retrospective was held at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia in 1962. She has since been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Menil Collection in Houston. Today, she lives and works in New York.

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Artist: Vija Celmins
Recognized Seller Listings
Untitled (Web 1)
By Vija Celmins
Located in New York, NY
Portfolio: The MOCA Portfolio Sheet size: 23 x 18 1/4 inches Frame size: 24 15/16 x 20 1/8 inches Printer: Jacob Samuel, Santa Monica Publisher: Lapis Press and Museum of Contemporar...
Category

Early 2000s Vija Celmins Prints and Multiples

Materials

Mezzotint

Spider Web; 2009; Screenprint; 17 1/2 x 19 inches; Edition of 117
By Vija Celmins
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Vija Celmins "Spider Web" 2009; Screenprint 17 1/2 x 19 inches Edition of 117 Signed and numbered unframed
Category

Early 2000s Vija Celmins Prints and Multiples

Materials

Screen

Untitled (Large Desert)
By Vija Celmins
Located in New York, NY
Medium: Lithograph Printer and Publisher: Cirrus Editions, Los Angeles Catalogue reference: MMA 4 Edition size: 65, plus proofs Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, lower margin
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1970s Photorealist Vija Celmins Prints and Multiples

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled (Ocean)
By Vija Celmins
Located in New York, NY
Frame size: 30 7/8 x 48 inches Printer: Ed Hamilton, Cirrus Editions Publisher: Cirrus Editions, Los Angeles Edition: 65, plus proofs Catalogue reference:...
Category

1970s Contemporary Vija Celmins Prints and Multiples

Materials

Lithograph

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Vija Celmins prints and multiples for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Vija Celmins prints and multiples available for sale on 1stDibs. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Robert Bechtle, Tom Blackwell, and C.J. (Ching Jang) Yao.

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