Vija Celmins

From 1955, she began studying art at the John Herron Art Institute. After being inspired by abstract impressionism, she drew on everyday life to create her paintings in the early 1960s.  Food, tableware and domestic appliances were depicted in a hyperrealistic manner, using a monochromatic palette. From the 1970s, Celmins moved away from representations of everyday life to devote herself to more enigmatic and muted paintings. Night skies and starry skies, deserts, oceans and spider webs became her favourite subjects, which she developed in series. Drawing also became an equally important part of her practice. Her all over compositions invite infinite contemplation and mediation, as well as the attentive observation of nature, whose materials and textures are meticulously recreated by Celmins.

For her solo exhibition at the Fondation Cartier in 1995, Vija Celmins presented a selection of night and desert paintings created by the artist between 1982 and 1995.