About this artwork

'Divided Night Sky' portrays a complex pattern of white stars scattered across a deep, black ground. It is one of a series of five mezzotint prints made in 2010 in which Celmins explores micro- and macrocosmic worlds using her distinctive black and white, photorealist style. The other prints are 'Reverse Galaxy', 'Falling Stars', 'Dark Galaxy' and 'Web Ladder'. Celmins has repeated the motif of night skies, or star fields, many times in her drawings, paintings and prints, painstakingly reproducing fragments from telescopic photographs. She is fascinated by the complexity of the natural world and has commented that, "aside from art, nature is one of the most amazing and comforting things to me ... I think of it as a place of discovery".

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
    Vija Celmins (born 1938) American
  • title:
    Divided Night Sky
  • date created:
    2010
  • materials:
    Mezzotint on paper
  • measurements:
    plate: 30.00 x 21.00 cm (paper 41.70 x 29.90 cm); Framed: 45.50 × 33.70 × 3.70 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Presented by the artist 2010
  • accession number:
    AR01156
  • gallery:
This artwork is part of Artist Rooms
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Vija Celmins

Vija Celmins