Vija Celmins

{{Short description|Latvian-American visual artist (born 1938)|bot=PearBOT 5}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Vija Celmins

| image = F20230912ES-0605 (cropped).jpg

| imagesize =

| caption =

| birth_name = Vija Celmiņa

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age |1938|10|25}}

| birth_place = Riga, Latvia

| death_date =

| death_place =

| nationality = American

| field = Painting, Graphic art, Printmaking

| training = John Herron School of Art
UCLA

| movement = Abstract, Minimalism, Photorealism

| works =

| influenced =

| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Carnegie Prize, MacArthur Fellowship

}}

Vija Celmins ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|i|j|ə|_|ˈ|s|ɛ|l|m|ə|n|z}} {{respell|VEE|yə|_|SEL|məns}};Hilarie M. Sheets and Randy Kennedy (September 24, 2015); [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/25/arts/design/richard-prince-takes-a-new-approach-to-cowboys.html Changing Galleries] New York Times. {{langx|lv|Vija Celmiņa}}; {{IPA|lv|ˈvija ˈt̪͡s̪ɛlmiɲa}}; born October 25, 1938) is a Latvian American visual artist best known for photo-realistic paintings and drawings of natural environments and phenomena such as the ocean, spider webs, star fields, and rocks.{{cite web|url=http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/93|title=UCLA Hammer Gallery|access-date=2013-01-26|archive-date=2009-07-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090703025707/http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/93|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/on-tour/19882|title=National Gallery|access-date=2013-01-26|archive-date=2012-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120516164233/http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/on-tour/19882|url-status=dead}}{{cite book |title=Great women artists |date=2019 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0714878775 |page=94}} Her earlier work included pop sculptures and monochromatic representational paintings. Based in New York City, she has been the subject of over forty solo exhibitions since 1965, and major retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Biography

Vija Celmiņa was born on October 25, 1938, in Riga, Latvia.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1884964214|title=Dictionary of Women Artists Volume 1, p.377, By Delia Gaze, 1997}} Upon the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, during World War II, her parents fled with her and her older sister Inta{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/indystar/obituary.aspx?pid=160354000#fbLoggedOut|title=Indianapolis Star, Oct. 11, 2012 - Inta A. Celmins Obituary|website=Legacy.com }} to Germany, then under the Nazi regime; after the end of the war, the family lived in a United Nations supported Latvian refugee camp in Esslingen am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg. In 1948, the Church World Service relocated the family to the United States, briefly in New York City, then in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sponsored by a local Lutheran church, her father found work as a carpenter, and her mother in a hospital laundry.{{cite web|url=http://www.moma.org/docs/learn/archives/transcript_celmins.pdf|title=THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM, INTERVIEW WITH: VIJA CELMINS, BY: BETSY SUSSLER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, BOMB MAGAZINE, Oct. 18, 2011}} Vija was ten, and spoke no English, which caused her to focus on drawing, leading her teachers to encourage further creativity and painting.{{cite web|url=http://www.art21.org/texts/vija-celmins/interview-vija-celmins-earliest-influences-early-works|title=Art21, Sep. 16, 2003 - Vija Celmins: Earliest Influences, Early Works, Interview}}

In 1955, she entered the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, where she has said that for the first time in her life, she did not feel like an outsider. In 1961 she won a Fellowship to attend a Summer session at Yale University, where she met Chuck Close and Brice Marden, who would remain close friends. It was during this time she began to study Italian monotone still life painter Giorgio Morandi, and painted abstract works. In 1962 she graduated from Herron with a BFA, and moved to Venice, Los Angeles, to pursue an MFA at the University of California at Los Angeles, graduating in 1965. At UCLA, she enjoyed freedom, being far from her parents, leading to further artistic exploration. In 1978, she was an artist-in-residence, funded by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art.Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/los-angeles-institute-contemporary-art-records-5495/subseries-5-3 She lived in Venice until 1980, painting and sculpting, and working as an instructor at the California State University, Los Angeles, the University of California, Irvine and California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia.

In 1981, following an invitation to teach at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, she moved permanently to New York City, wanting to be closer to the artists and art that she liked. She also returned to painting, which she had abandoned for twelve years, working during that time mainly in pencil. She later used woodcuts, and eraser and charcoal. Since that time, she has worked out of a cottage in Sag Harbor, New York, and a studio loft on Crosby Street in Soho, Manhattan. During the 1980s, she also taught at the Cooper Union and the Yale University School of Art.{{cite web|title=The Brooklyn Rail, June 2010 - In Conversation: Vija Celmins with Phong Bui|date=3 June 2010 |url=http://brooklynrail.org/2010/06/art/vija-celmins-with-phong-bui}}

Work

File:Tulip Car No. 1, 1966, Vija Celmins at NGA 2022.jpeg in 2022]]

Working in California in the 1960s, Vija Celmins' early work, generally in photorealistic painting and pop-inspired sculpture, was representational. She recreated commonplace objects such as TVs, lamps, pencils, erasers and the painted monochrome reproductions of photographs.{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-21-ca-3995-story.html|title=Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1993 - ART REVIEW: The Profound Silence of Vija Celmins : MOCA retrospective, by CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT | first=Christopher | last=Knight|date=December 21, 1993}} A common underlying theme in the paintings was violence or conflict, such as war planes, handguns and riot imagery. A retrospective of the 1964–1966 work was organized by the Menil Collection in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2010.{{Cite book|title=Vija Celmins: Television and Disaster, 1964–1966|last1=Sirmans|first1=Franklin|last2=White|first2=Michelle|publisher=The Menil Collection|year=2010|isbn=978-0-300-16612-5|location=Houston|pages=64}} She has cited Malcolm Morley and Jasper Johns as influences in this period.{{cite web|url=http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/index.php/interview/index/158/87|title=Might Be Good, Issue 158, Dec. 3, 2010 - Interview: Vija Celmins, by Wendy Vogel|access-date=2013-01-26|archive-date=2011-02-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213004000/http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/index.php/interview/index/158/87|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-07-27-ca-486-story.html|title=Los Angeles Times, Jul. 27, 1990 - ART REVIEWS : A Rare Show by Reclusive Vija Celmins, by KRISTINE McKENNA | first=Kristine | last=McKenna|date=July 27, 1990}}

In the late 1960s through the 1970s, she abandoned painting, and focused on working in graphite pencil,{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/dust-and-doubt-deserts-and-galaxies-vija-celmins|title=Tate Modern, Tate Papers, Issue 14, Oct. 2010 - Dust and Doubt: The Deserts and Galaxies of Vija Celmins, by Stephanie Straine|access-date=2013-01-26|archive-date=2012-08-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805234941/http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/dust-and-doubt-deserts-and-galaxies-vija-celmins|url-status=dead}} creating highly detailed photorealistic drawings, based on photographs of natural elements such as the ocean's or Moon's surface, the insides of shells, and closeups of rocks.{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vija-celmins-2731|title=Tate Modern - Bio of Vija Celmins}} Critics frequently compare her laborious approach to contemporaries Chuck Close and Gerhard Richter,{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0870707132|title=MoMA: Highlights Since 1980, by Rebecca Roberts, published in 2007, pp161}} and she has cited Giorgio Morandi, a master of the pale grey still life, as a major influence. These works also share with Richter's an apparent randomness and thus apparently dispassionate attitude. It is as if any photograph would do as a source for a painting, and the choice is apparently unimportant. This is of course not the case, but the work contains within it the impression that the image is chosen at random from an endless selection of possible alternative images of similar nature.{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}

At the end of this period, from 1976 to 1983, Celmins also returned to sculpture in a way that incorporated her interest in photorealism. She produced a series of bronze cast, acrylic painted stones, exact replicas of individual stones she found along the Rio Grande in Northern New Mexico,Morgan, Susan, Los Angeles Times, 12 December 1993 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-12-ca-1174-story.html with eleven examples held at MoMA.{{cite web|url=http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=100210|title=MoMA Collection - To Fix the Image in Memory by Vija Celmins}} By 1981, she returned to painting, from this point forward working also with woodcuts and printing, and substantially in charcoal with a wide variety of erasers - often exploring negative space, selectively removing darkness from images, and achieving subtle control of grey tones.

From the early 1980s forward, Celmins focused on the constellations, moon and oceans using these various techniques, a balance between the abstract and photorealism.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/arts/design/11galleries-001.html?_r=0|title=New York Times, June 10, 2010 - Vija Celmins: 'New Paintings, Objects and Prints', By ROBERTA SMITH | work=The New York Times | first=Roberta|last=Smith|date=June 10, 2010}} By 2000, she had begun to produce haunting and distinctive spider webs, again negative images in oil or charcoal, to much critical acclaim,{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/01/arts/art-review-with-no-hidden-agenda-the-process-is-the-point.html|title=New York Times, Nov. 1, 2002 - ART REVIEW; With No Hidden Agenda, The Process Is the Point, By GRACE GLUECK | work=The New York Times | first=Grace|last=Glueck|date=November 1, 2002}}{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/06/04/010604craw_artworld|title=New Yorker, June 4, 2001 - DARK STAR: The intimate grandeur of Vija Celmins, BY PETER SCHJELDAHL|magazine=The New Yorker |date=28 May 2001 }} with particular note of her meticulous surface development and luminosity.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/01/arts/art-in-review-vija-celmins.html|title=New York Times, June 1, 2001 - ART IN REVIEW; Vija Celmins, By KEN JOHNSON | work=The New York Times | first=Ken|last=Johnson|date=June 1, 2001}} She has said that all these works are based on photographs, and she imparts substantial effort on the built-up surfaces of the images. In a 1996 review of her 30-year retrospective at London's Institute of Contemporary Art, The Independent cited her as "American art's best-kept secret."{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/visual-arts-vija-celmins-ica-london-1314334.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220817/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/visual-arts-vija-celmins-ica-london-1314334.html |archive-date=2022-08-17 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Independent, Dec. 13, 1996 - VISUAL ARTS: Vija Celmins ICA, London, by RICHARD INGLEBY | first=Richard | last=Ingleby|date=December 13, 1996}}

Critics have often noted that Celmins' works since the late 1960s - the moon scapes, ocean surfaces, star fields, shells, and spider webs, often share the characteristic of not having a reference point: no horizon, depth of field, edge or landmarks to put them into context. The location, constellation, or scientific name are all unknown - there is no information imparted.{{cite web|url=http://www.roswithahaftmann-stiftung.com/en/prizewinners/2009_laudatio.htm|title=Roswitha Haftmann Stiftung Foundation, Laudatio of Vija Celmins, 2009, by Hans-Joachim Müller}}{{cite web|url=http://whitney.org/Education/ForTeachers/Collection/VijaCelmins/AboutThisArtist|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416042402/http://whitney.org/Education/ForTeachers/Collection/VijaCelmins/AboutThisArtist|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 16, 2013|title=Whitney for Teachers, Discussion of Vija Celmins}}{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/vija-celmins|title=PBS, ART21 - About Vija Celmins, from Art in the Twenty-First Century, 2003|website=PBS }}

File:Blackboard Tableau No. 14, 2011-2015, Vija Celmins at NGA 2022.jpg in 2022]]

From 2008, Celmins returned to objects and representative work, with paintings of maps and books, as well as many uses of small graphite tablets - hand held black boards. She also produced series prints of her now well-known waves, spiderwebs, shells and desert floors, many of which were exhibited at the McKee Gallery in June 2010.{{cite web|url=http://mckeegallery.com/press/2010/vija-celmins-new-work-press-release/|title=McKee Gallery, 2010 Announcement of Vija Celmins Exhibit}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.artpremium.com/vija-celmins-entropic-void/|title=ArtPremium – Vija Celmins, Entropic Void|date=2017-04-19|work=ArtPremium|access-date=2018-05-03|language=en-US|archive-date=2018-05-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504010948/https://www.artpremium.com/vija-celmins-entropic-void/|url-status=dead}} She recently released a new series of prints that includes both night sky and waves mezzotints. These prints were exhibited at the Matthew Marks Gallery in January, February, and March 2018{{Cite web|url=http://www.matthewmarks.com/los-angeles/exhibitions/2018-01-27_vija-celmins/|title=Vija Celmins|year=2018|website=Matthew Marks Gallery}} and the Senior & Shopmaker Gallery in February and March 2018.{{Cite web|url=http://www.seniorandshopmaker.com/current-exhibition/|title=Vija Celmins: Recent Prints|website=www.seniorandshopmaker.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180228174433/http://www.seniorandshopmaker.com/current-exhibition/|archive-date=February 28, 2018}}

Her woodcuts of water can take a year to cut; she has commented that they "remind us of 'the complexity of the simplest things'".{{cite book |last1=Bunting |first1=Madeleine |title=Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey |date=2016 |publisher=Granta |isbn=9781847085184}}

Solo exhibitions

Celmins's works have been the subject of over forty solo exhibitions around the world since 1966 (Los Angeles),{{Cite web |title=The Prints of Vija Celmins - The Metropolitan Museum of Art |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2002/the-prints-of-vija-celmins |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=www.metmuseum.org}} hundreds of group exhibitions. After her longtime dealer, McKee Gallery in New York, announced its closing in 2015, Celmins is currently represented by Matthew Marks Gallery.

In 2020, the major career survey Vija Celmins, was organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York and exhibited at the institution's former space MET Brauer.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=2019-09-26 |title=Deep Looking, With Vija Celmins |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/arts/design/vija-celmins-review-met-breuer.html |access-date=2023-07-14 |issn=0362-4331}} Between 1992 and 1994, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, organized the artist's mid-career retrospective. The show traveled to the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Group exhibitions

In 2022, the Hammer Museum at University of California, Los Angeles, organized the exhibition Joan Didion: What She Means, curated by The New Yorker theater critic Hilton Als. The show traveled to the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2023, and works by Vija Celmins were included alongside artworks by 50 other contemporary artists such as Félix González-Torres, Ana Mendieta, Betye Saar, Maren Hassinger, Silke Otto-Knapp, John Koch, Ed Ruscha, Pat Steir, among others.{{Cite web |title=Joan Didion: What She Means • Pérez Art Museum Miami |url=https://www.pamm.org/en/exhibition/joan-didion-what-she-means/ |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=Pérez Art Museum Miami |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2022-10-15 |title=Joan Didion: What She Means {{!}} Hammer Museum |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2022/joan-didion-what-she-means |access-date=2023-07-14 |website=hammer.ucla.edu |language=en}} In 2023, the Kunsthalle Hamburg hosted the exhibiton Vija Celmnis | Gerhard Richter. Double Vision (12 May 2023 - 27 August 2023), featuring a dialogue between the two artists.{{cite web |last1=Lisa |first1=Stein |title=Vija Celmins, Gerhard Richter: Double Vision |url=https://contemporary.burlington.org.uk/reviews/reviews/vija-celmins-gerhard-richter-double-vision |website=Burlington Contemporary |access-date=25 February 2025 |date=16 August 2023}}

Notable works in public collections

Heater (1964) Whitney Museum, New York{{cite web |title=Heater |url=https://whitney.org/collection/works/9516 |website=Whitney |publisher=Whitney Museum |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703150938/https://whitney.org/collection/works/9516 |archive-date=3 July 2021 |url-status=live}}
Torso (1964), Menil Collection, Houston{{cite web |title=Torso |url=https://www.menil.org/collection/objects/16312-torso |website=Menil |publisher=Menil Collection |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918203220/https://www.menil.org/collection/objects/16312-torso |archive-date=18 September 2021 |url-status=live}}
House #1 (1965), Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=House #1 |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100218 |website=MoMA |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131115117/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100218 |archive-date=31 January 2022 |url-status=live}}
Forest Fire (1965-1966), Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland
Explosion at Sea (1966), Art Institute of Chicago{{cite web |title=Explosion at Sea |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/146905/explosion-at-sea |website=ArtIC |year=1966 |publisher=Art Institute of Chicago |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625220251/https://www.artic.edu/artworks/146905/explosion-at-sea |archive-date=25 June 2022 |url-status=live}}
Flying Fortress (1966), Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=Flying Fortress |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100223? |website=MoMA |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131115043/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100223 |archive-date=31 January 2022 |url-status=live}}
German Plane (1966), Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas{{cite web |title=German Plane |url=https://collection.themodern.org/objects/931/german-plane? |website=The Modern |publisher=Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812040137/https://collection.themodern.org/objects/931/german-plane? |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Pencil (1966), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Pencil |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133922.html |website=NGA |year=1966 |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812040823/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133922.html |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Suspended Plane (1966), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=Suspended Plane |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2006.1/ |website=SFMoMA |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227013852/https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2006.1/ |archive-date=27 February 2021 |url-status=live}}
Tulip Car #1 (1966), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Tulip Car #1 |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133925.html |website=NGA |year=1966 |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812040706/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133925.html |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Untitled (Double Moon Surface) (1969), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Untitled (Double Moon Surface) |url=https://hirshhorn.si.edu/collection/artwork/?edanUrl=edanmdm%3Ahmsg_98.12 |website=Hirshhorn |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=12 August 2022}}
Untitled (Ocean) (1969), Philadelphia Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Untitled (Ocean) |url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/86458 |website=PhilaMuseum |publisher=Philadelphia Museum of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523170506/https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/86458 |archive-date=23 May 2021 |url-status=live}}
Untitled (Cassiopeia) (1973), Baltimore Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Untitled (Cassiopeia) |url=https://collection.artbma.org/objects/9840/untitled-cassiopeia |website=ArtBMA |publisher=Baltimore Museum of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812034254/https://collection.artbma.org/objects/9840/untitled-cassiopeia |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Untitled (Medium Desert) (1974-1975), Menil Collection, Houston{{cite web |title=Untitled (Medium Desert) |url=https://www.menil.org/collection/objects/8455-untitled-medium-desert |website=Menil |publisher=Menil Collection |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727042152/https://www.menil.org/collection/objects/8455-untitled-medium-desert |archive-date=27 July 2021 |url-status=live}}
Untitled (Comb) (1978), Los Angeles County Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Untitled (Comb) |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/238423 |website=LACMA |publisher=Los Angeles County Museum of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121082032/https://collections.lacma.org/node/238423 |archive-date=21 January 2022 |url-status=live}}
To Fix the Image in Memory (1977-1982), Museum of Modern Art, New York{{cite web |title=To Fix the Image in Memory |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100210 |website=MoMA |publisher=Museum of Modern Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220322171849/https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100210 |archive-date=22 March 2022 |url-status=live}}
Alliance (1982), High Museum of Art, Atlanta{{cite web |title=Alliance |url=https://high.org/collections/alliance/ |website=High |publisher=High Museum of Art |access-date=12 August 2022}}
Strata (1983), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{cite web |title=Strata |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/353031 |website=MetMuseum |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125123656/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/353031 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |url-status=live}}
Untitled (Comet) (1988), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{cite web |title=Untitled (Comet) |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133926.html |website=NGA |year=1988 |publisher=National Gallery of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812040455/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.133926.html |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Night Sky #12 (1995-1996), Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh{{cite web |title=Night Sky #12 |url=https://collection.cmoa.org/objects/9388b34d-2534-425a-b343-b4635f9b0fe9 |website=CMoA |publisher=Carnegie Museum of Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221221026/https://collection.cmoa.org/objects/9388b34d-2534-425a-b343-b4635f9b0fe921 |archive-date=21 December 2020 |url-status=live}}
Night Sky #19 (1998), Tate, London{{cite web |title=Night Sky #19 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/celmins-night-sky-19-ar00163 |website=Tate |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719065055/https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/celmins-night-sky-19-ar00163 |archive-date=19 July 2022 |url-status=live}}
Untitled #17 (1998), Centre Pompidou, Paris{{cite web |title=Untitled #17 |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cg9Gj6 |website=Centre Pompidou |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812034659/https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/cg9Gj6 |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Night Sky #20 (1999), Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland{{cite web |title=Night Sky #20 |url=https://kmw.zetcom.net/de/collection/item/7822/ |website=KMW |publisher=Kunstmuseum Winterthur |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812035032/https://kmw.zetcom.net/de/collection/item/7822/ |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Night Sky #17 (2000-2001), Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas{{cite web |title=Night Sky #17 |url=https://collection.themodern.org/objects/932/night-sky-17? |website=The Modern |publisher=Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812035728/https://collection.themodern.org/objects/932/night-sky-17 |archive-date=12 August 2022 |url-status=live}}
Blackboard Tableau #1 (2007-2010), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art{{cite web |title=Blackboard Tableau #1 |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2011.16.A-K/ |website=SFMoMA |publisher=San Francisco Museum of Modern Art |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227000843/https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2011.16.A-K/ |archive-date=27 February 2021 |url-status=live}}
Blackboard Tableau #14 (2011-2015), Glenstone, Potomac, Maryland{{cite web |title=Vija Celmins |url=https://www.glenstone.org/artist/vija-celmins/ |website=Glenstone |access-date=12 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220420014711/https://www.glenstone.org/artist/vija-celmins/ |archive-date=20 April 2022 |url-status=live}}

In 2005, a major collector of her work, real estate developer Edward R. Broida, donated 17 pieces, covering 40 years of her career, to the Museum of Modern Art, as part of an overall contribution valued at $50 million ($50,000,000). Especially noteworthy were the early and late paintings.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/arts/design/12gift.html?_r=0|title=New York Times, Oct. 12, 2005 - The Modern Gets a Sizable Gift of Contemporary Art, By CAROL VOGEL | work=The New York Times | first=Carol|last=Vogel|date=October 12, 2005}}

Awards

1961: Fellowship to Yale University Summer Session{{cite web|url=http://mckeegallery.com/artists/vija-celmins/bio/|title=McKee Gallery, Biography of Vija Celmins}}
1968: Cassandra Foundation Award
1971 & 1976: Artist's Fellowship from National Endowment for the Arts
1980: Guggenheim Fellowship
1996: American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Art{{cite web|url=http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Academy%20Art|title=American Academy of Arts and Letters Awards Registry|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413124249/http://www.artsandletters.org/awards2_popup.php?abbrev=Academy%20Art|archive-date=2014-04-13}}
1997: Skowhegan Medal for Painting{{cite web|url=http://www.cmoa.org/searchcollections/creators.aspx?partiesIRN=1001074&item=52043|title=Carnegie Museum of Art - Biography of Vija Celmins}}
1997: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship
2000–2001: Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Award{{cite book|title=Coutts Contemporary Art Foundation Awards 2000 : Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Vija Celmins, Luc Tuymans, Switzerland|oclc = 71341637}}
2004 Elected into the National Academy of Design
2006: RISD Athena Award for Excellence in Painting
2008: Awarded the $10,000 Carnegie Prize{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/ae/uncategorized/carnegie-international-a-magnet-for-planners-art-lovers-392777/|title=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 7, 2008 - Carnegie International a magnet for planners, art lovers, By Mary Thomas | date=May 7, 2008}}
2009: Roswitha Haftmann Prize{{cite web|url=http://www.roswithahaftmann-stiftung.com/en/prizewinners/default.htm|title=Roswitha Haftmann Prizewinners}}
2009: Fellow Award in the Visual Arts from United States Artists{{cite web|url=http://www.usaprojects.org/user/VijaCelmins|title=USA Projects, Board Fellow Vija Celmins, 2009}}
2021: Honoree of the Great Immigrants Award, Carnegie Corporation of New York{{Cite web |title=Vija Celmins |url=https://www.carnegie.org/awards/honoree/vija-celmins/ |access-date=June 10, 2024 |website=Carnegie Corporation of New York}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99EVGM-EG0 |title=Artist Interview—Vija Celmins {{!}} Met Exhibitions |date=2019-08-30 |last=The Met |access-date=2024-06-20 |via=YouTube}}

References

External links

[https://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/celmins/ Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips] from PBS series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century - Season 2 (2003)
[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/celmins_vija.html Artcyclopedia page]
[http://www.matthewmarks.com/new-york/artists/vija-celmins/ Vija Celmins at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924201807/https://www.matthewmarks.com/new-york/artists/vija-celmins/ |date=2020-09-24 }}
[https://archive.today/20121212074638/http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/tsearch?artist=celmins&title= Vija Celmins at the National Gallery of Art]
[https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Vija_Celmins/ Celmins at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]

Category:1938 births

Category:Living people

Category:MacArthur Fellows

Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Category:Artists from Indianapolis

Category:American wood engravers

Category:Wood engravers

Category:Herron School of Art and Design alumni

Category:Artists from Riga

Category:Latvian World War II refugees

Category:Latvian emigrants to the United States

Category:National Academy of Design members