Even though her work is admirable in sustaining such a high level of focus and skill through such a long career, I’ve never been a fan of Vija Celmins. Walking into a room full of paintings depicting the ripply surface of water over and over would make me want to run for the door.
This show has started the process of changing that. Her early paintings of simple objects suspended in a painted space, possibly derived from Manet or Velasquez, pulled me in. These pieces were the work of an artist who felt the need to find a way to make paintings outside of the options available to her at the time. Instead, she searched in a frank manner for a place of beginning and from there she moved forward, working diligently and earnestly, letting her intellect and her natural inclinations guide her.
Ultimately, Ms. Celmins focused on making images that are derived from photographs. All of the resulting works are deeply involved in the specifics of what was depicted in the original photograph. Simultaneously, she is intensely involved, in each piece, with the specific demands of her medium of choice for the piece and the qualities of that piece’s finished surface. The existence of the original photograph seems more of an artifact of the process than a notable element in the finished work.
This might be how she has always managed to keep a comfortable distance between her work and hyper or photorealism. It would also seem that her involvement in the physical processes involved in the making of each individual piece leaves little room in her oeuvre for examining the nature of photography or the roll photography plays in our social discourse.
Rather, she seems to have cultivated a deep meditative involvement with both her working process and the material she is sourcing through photographs. When first looking at one of her works one is sure to be taken with its verisimilitude. You might even feel that you’re looking at a particularly good piece of hyper realist work. But, draw close to a hyper or photorealist work, and the illusion quickly falls apart. Most usually you’re left looking at the mechanics of painting, like a wonderful meal broken down into piles of various ingredients on a plate. With Ms. Celmins’ works, a closer look dissolves the illusion so you can look through to a wonderfully drawn or painted surface where the flow of the medium is not interrupted by the needs of the illusion. I think this is a result of her meditative manner. These paintings are not making a point or about simple visual thrills; they are a means of being. They are whole and complete within themselves, no matter what distance you stand from them.