Vija Celmins:
Beyond Rendering

Apart from being an incredibly accomplished 'technician', which is perhaps MOST of the reason that attention is bestowed upon Vija Celmins, there is a tenacious - even obsessive quality seen in her works - at least in the aggregate.  And so, syntactically - they fascinate. That is to say that seeing a collection of her work over time is rewarding... to explore the variations in treatment, framing, subject matter and technique. And it is a fascinating exploration, a controlled one at that, into the psyche of an artist and a human being. This is perhaps the most powerful aspect of her work -and the aspect that you will RARELY hear being talked about.  This is where we discuss thematics.  There are several enduring themes running through her work which appear time an again - all loosely intimating a sense of mortality - the ocean(water)... the night sky... the spider web... disasters.  The universality of such existential tropes resonate soundly with all of us.

But it's not even so simple. The degree to which craft is exercised embeds a layer of communication, a layer of intimacy - in her work which is all but absent in the conceptual musings of the last 20-30 years of efforts by our best artists.  She exposes us to a level of mastery and that is haunting that we wish not acknowledge nor discuss because it's not convenient to the narrative of the 'contemporary'. I think that Celmins' work provides a reminder of the soulful aspect of art that is all too often missing these decades. It is a challlenge that needs to be answered.

Ocean SurfaceI, 2000

Untitled No.8, Woodcut