Night Sky 2 (Reversed) [special proof]
started 2002, published 2003
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
photogravure, aquatint, photo-etching, and drypoint in gray and black on Hahnemühle Copperplate wove paper [special proof]
Dimensions
plate: 39.69 × 49.21 cm (15 5/8 × 19 3/8 in.) sheet: 53.02 × 62.23 cm (20 7/8 × 24 1/2 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Gemini G.E.L., LLC and the Artist
Accession Number
2015.23.12
Art Historical Context
Vija Celmins' *Night Sky 2 (Reversed) [special proof]* (started 2002, published2003) captures the mesmerizing vastness of a star-filled sky, rendered in intricate grayscale tones. A Latvian-American artist renowned for her hyper-detailed depictions of natural phenomena—oceans, spiders' webs, and celestial expanses—Celmins draws from photographs to recreate the infinite universe on an intimate scale. This print a special proof from her ongoing "Night Sky" series, the image, inviting viewers to ponder the cosmos from an altered perspective, blurring the line between reality and artistic interpre...
About the Artist
Vija Celmins
Vija Celmins, born on October 25, 1938, in Riga, Latvia, endured a tumultuous early life marked by World War II displacement. Her family fled Soviet occupation, living in German refugee camps before immigrating to the United States in 1948 via sponsorship from a Lutheran church. Settling in Indianapolis, Indiana, where her father worked as a carpenter and her mother in a hospital laundry, young Vi...