About this artwork
Celmins is fascinated with the vast and inaccessible nature of the stellar cosmos, as portrayed in 'Dark Galaxy', one of a series of five mezzotint prints made in 2010. The other prints are 'Reverse Galaxy', 'Falling Stars', 'Divided Night Sky' and 'Web Ladder'. Since the early 1970s she has represented wide open spaces that are potentially both engulfing and claustrophobic, such as oceans, deserts and night skies, in her drawings, prints and paintings. The images of nature that she reproduces are taken from found photographs, postcards and magazine clippings and are impersonal and neutral, devoid of any romantic qualities. The mezzotint process used to create these prints has permitted her to explore stark contrasts between black and white.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Vija Celmins (born 1938) American
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title:Dark Galaxy
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date created:2010
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materials:Mezzotint on paper
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measurements:plate 30.00 x 21.00 cm (paper 41.70 x 29.90 cm); Framed: 45.70 x 34.00 x 3.70 cm
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object type:
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credit line:ARTIST ROOMS National Galleries of Scotland and Tate. Presented by the artist 2010
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accession number:AR01159
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gallery:

Vija Celmins
Vija Celmins
Born in Latvia in 1938, Celmins and her family emigrated to the United States in 1948. Although beginning her career as an Abstract Expressionist painter, she is now best known for her intricate, monochromatic drawings of a select range of subjects. In 1966 she began to use photographs as the...