Vija Celmins begins her artistic career in Los Angeles in the wake of pop art by painting images of ordinary objects and reproductions of black and white photographs.
Her Burning plane painted in 1965 echoes the military aircrafts by Richter although she was more directly inspired from similar ideas by Jasper Johns about an art without expressed feeling. This oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm was sold for $ 3.4M including premium by Sotheby's on September 24, 2014.
Influenced also by the art in shades of grey by Morandi, she specializes in graphite drawing from 1965, starting with hyperrealist enlargements of photographs of clouds shot by herself.
In 1968 Vija Celmins modified her technique by drawing on a paper previously covered with an acrylic paint. Through more than ten years she photographed and painstakingly copied the swell of the Pacific Ocean from the end of the pier at Venice Beach in LA.
The total absence of land and life brings an illusion of infinity which can be compared with the paintings by Agnes Martin. The respective distance of the undulations of the sea brings the perspective that is lacking in the art of Martin.
One of the very first artworks of this series, made on paper 36 x 48 cm including a wide border, was sold for $ 1,7M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2013. A view taking the wind in diagonal, drawn in 1969 within a narrower border, is estimated $ 1.5M for sale by Phillips in New York on November 16, lot 6.
SOLD for $ 2.9M including premium
Her Burning plane painted in 1965 echoes the military aircrafts by Richter although she was more directly inspired from similar ideas by Jasper Johns about an art without expressed feeling. This oil on canvas 36 x 62 cm was sold for $ 3.4M including premium by Sotheby's on September 24, 2014.
Influenced also by the art in shades of grey by Morandi, she specializes in graphite drawing from 1965, starting with hyperrealist enlargements of photographs of clouds shot by herself.
In 1968 Vija Celmins modified her technique by drawing on a paper previously covered with an acrylic paint. Through more than ten years she photographed and painstakingly copied the swell of the Pacific Ocean from the end of the pier at Venice Beach in LA.
The total absence of land and life brings an illusion of infinity which can be compared with the paintings by Agnes Martin. The respective distance of the undulations of the sea brings the perspective that is lacking in the art of Martin.
One of the very first artworks of this series, made on paper 36 x 48 cm including a wide border, was sold for $ 1,7M including premium by Christie's on November 13, 2013. A view taking the wind in diagonal, drawn in 1969 within a narrower border, is estimated $ 1.5M for sale by Phillips in New York on November 16, lot 6.
SOLD for $ 2.9M including premium
NY - "...I don't reveal what I'm feeling, or what I think about the President. I use nature. I use found images." #VijaCelmins on view now. pic.twitter.com/gdQvY6QcS3
— P H I L L I P S (@phillipsauction) November 9, 2016
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