Before I go into detail describing the connotations and denotations of Vija Celmins work, I feel like I should tell you a little bit about her personal background. I wasn't really sure who to focus on for this assignment so I typed "contemporary artists" into Google, and the Art21 site came up. Of the few I browsed, Celmins surprisingly caught my eye with her monochromatic work. Celmins is originally from Riga, Latvia. If you are like me, then you don't believe there is a place called Latvia, at least, I had never heard of it, so I was skeptical. But it turns out Latvia is a small country in Northern Europe, and Riga is the capital. Celmins then moved to America when she was 10, to Indiana, a place I am certain exists. Her art career was neither encouraged nor discouraged by her parents, in fact, it was their apathy that pushed Celmins towards art. She has a BFA, and a MFA in painting. The subject matter that Celmins focuses on is simple, ranging from landscapes to everyday objects. By being accomplished in various mediums and giving her work such amazing attention to intricate details, each work turns out beautifully. Viewers are always able to draw significant meaning from the works. I am going to discuss three of Celmins pieces, as well as share some links to her other works. You'll find that some of Celmin's artwork looks nearly identical, but are all unique.
Vija Celmins - Untitled (Web 1), 2001
These are the denotations I identify in this piece: It is sort of dull, just because it is so monochromatic. The background ranges from dark grey to very dark. The web in the foreground sort of softly emerges from this dark background. Your eye follows the loopy circular pattern created by the web to the center, where a dark spider sits. The bottom half of the web is shadowed while the upper portion is lighter. The web is stretched across the "page" so it occupies nearly all the space. The web looks delicate contrasting the vast dark background. The medium of this work is mezzotint, which is a style I had never heard of. According to wikipedia, (Sidenote: I know is not a reliable source, but I don't think they can make this up) is basically a "printmaking process" on copperplate paper. To get the realistic effect the artist uses a tool that has little teeth to make little dots in the plate. The sense of realism in this piece is pretty much amazing.
It's difficult to find an accurate way to describe the connotations in Celmin's works. But I did find a few websites that share their opinions of what Celmins is aiming for based on interviews and other sources.
Art Blart blogger Dr. Marcus Bunyan analyzes this piece and states, "Celmins works focus on something small and individual in the context of vastness. The images they depict seem fragile because they record a specific human glimpse through a telescope or camera which is temporary and frozen in time." Time is a theme that I think is connotative and appears in nearly all of Celmins works. Mezzotint, just from description, seems to be a painstakingly time consuming process, and to give such attention to something that we humans barely pay attention to, like a spider on its web, is a statement in itself. Also, the blog, The Symbolic Dimension shares a direct quote from Celmins in regards to this 'Web 1', Vija says, "I think I liked the image because it also described the surface and held onto the edges and made this flat plane which is of course the real flat plane that you see in front of you...I started doing a series of webs that described that space." So in a way, Celmins may be drawing attention to how something as small and delicate as a web, and its spider can command space.
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/celmins/clip2.html#
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ttp://symbolicdimension.blogspot.com/2010/11/vija-celmins.html
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/celmins/
http://symbolicdimension.blogspot.com/2010/11/vija-celmins.html
http://beta.art21.org/get/4752/documents/downloads/a-g/art21-time-screenguide.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezzotint
Vija Celmins - Untitled (Ocean with Cross #1), 1971
Denotations: For starters, this piece is graphite on acrylic ground paper. It is from top to bottom and left to right, just waves of the sea, but incredibly detailed. The waves closer to the viewer are darker and more detailed, and as you look into the horizon the water is lighter. Looking at the picture I feel like it goes on forever even though I can see it. Even though the piece lacks color, you don't need it to get the point. Also, the lack of an obvious focal point lets your eye wander lazily across the whole scene.
Connotations: As previously stated, Celmins is always, "Questioning the nature of representation." She does these incredible close ups of nature scenes, as if drawing through the eye of a camera lens. If you have been fortunate enough to go to any ocean in your life time, you probably know what I mean when I talk about how impossible it is to convey the beauty and wonder of the ocean you're looking at through when you take a picture. No matter what, the photo turns out so constricted, so boxed in. And I think Celmins is emphasizing that point. When asked how she got into the oceans theme Celmins says, "The ocean came from maybe walking my dog on the beach all the time and beginning to think of this giant surface. And thinking about my own surfaces on the work." So Celmins seems to be experimenting with surfaces and how you view and use them.
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A1048&page_number=10&template_id=1&sort_order=1
http://the-universe-inside-your-mind.blogspot.com/2009/10/highlights-from-edinburgh-visit.html
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/celmins/clip1.html
Vija Celmins - Star Field III, 1982-1983
Denotations: The medium of this piece is graphite on acrylic ground paper, but it's so amazing because it look so much richer than simple graphite. The black of the night sky is really deep and it makes the stars pop out so much more. The amount of stars bursting across the page really is dazzling. Again, I feel like I'm just zoomed in on one part of a giant never ending picture while viewing this piece.
Connotations: Even the medium of the work holds a sort of meaning to Celmins. In an interview about this piece pictured above, Celimins stated, "I think the uniform nature of the graphite sitting on that surface keeps you engaged in the flat plane. There really is no depth to it." This statement makes the viewer question what depth is and how and why certain things get out attention and others do not. A small article discussing Celmin's and her work put the connotative meaning behind this piece perfectly, "Celmins's works focus on something small and individual in the context of vastness. The images they depict seem fragile because they record a specific human glimpse through a telescope or camera which is frozen in time."
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A1048&page_number=16&template_id=1&sort_order=1
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/celmins/clip1.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/artistrooms/artist.do?id=2731
http://the-universe-inside-your-mind.blogspot.com/2009/10/highlights-from-edinburgh-visit.html
So I know I've put a lot of quotes in this blog, but I feel like I can't really put things into words as well as others, so I just wanted to end with a final quote from the Art21 website that connotatively sums up almost all of Celmin's detailed and picturesque pieces:
"A prolific artist with a long career, Celmins has created sculptures, paintings, drawings and prints that find a timeless authenticity in natural forms from stones to waves and spider webs. 'The reason, I think, I do images that require so much time,' she reflects, is to give the work the opportunity to ripen. 'It’s like something unconsciously seeps into the work,' Celmins explains about the labor-intensive process she is well-known ."
