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Vija Celmins

American, born Latvia, 1938

Untitled (Desert), 1971

lithograph

Edition: 36/65

image area: 21 x 27 3/4 inches (53.34 x 70.48 cm); sheet: 22 1/2 x 29 inches (57.15 x 73.66 cm)

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Gift of Frederic P. Norton, 1999

P1999:6.96

More Details

Inscriptions

signed and dated / lower right / "V. Celmins '71"

numbered / lower left / 36/65

Provenance

collection of Frederic P. Norton; donated to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1999

Class

Prints

Work Type

Lithograph

Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms

Over the course of her long and productive career, Vija Celmins has translated the surfaces of oceans, skies, spiderwebs, desert floors, and other subjects into meticulously drawn images. Her goal in making these works is not to create photorealistic illusions, however, and she always reveals the edges of her works on paper. Instead, Celmins primarily sees her art as the result of contemplative engagement with the natural world. Untitled (Desert) appears vast and expansive, inviting us to consider the sublimity of the landscape, while Celmins’s loving attention to minuscule details also pulls us closer into the present moment.

Label from The Swindle: Art Between Seeing and Believing, May 26–October 28, 2018