Moon Surface (Luna 9) #2, 1969
Graphite on Acrylic ground on paper
14 x 18 3/4 inches
Artist Quotes:
“I think I’ve always been interested in light. It is what makes the images. The dark graphite and the light of the paper unfold together. I made them in a deadpan way – and spoke of them as having ‘no composition/no gestures/no artificial colour/no distortion/no angst or effort showing/no ego/deadpan paintings. I know nothing, I compose nothing’.”
“Though I remember at the time that I had this feeling that no matter what I did, just to present the facts, there was still something in the work that was mine, that came through the making.”
“I had rejected gesture and composing obviously, I’m composing, but in a very toned down way. I’d given up colour. I’d given up a big size, which we all wanted so badly. I’d made some very big things before I dropped the scale down.”
Additional Links:
Simon Grant interviews Vija Celmins Thinking Drawing, Tate Etc., Simon Grant, Spring 2007
Artist discusses her artistic process, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, June 2000
California Landscape into Abstraction Research 