Vija Celmins

For its 17th contemporary counterpoint, the Musée de l’Orangerie presents a selection of works by Vija Celmins created between 1971 and 2000, focusing on recurring subjects including the ocean, desert, sky and snow. Through drawing, painting, printmaking and woodcut, the artist examines surfaces that appear to extend beyond the limits of the image. Described by Celmins as “impossible images”, these horizonless expanses offer few spatial references and explore the relationship between flatness and illusion.

Presented in the pronaos and the contemporary gallery, the works enter into dialogue with Claude Monet’s Nymphéas. Celmins’ tightly framed compositions similarly eliminate conventional points of orientation, creating images in which surface and depth coexist. A Painting in Six Parts examines the ocean through six small canvases, while prints, paintings and woodcuts further develop the motif of waves.

In the Contemporary Room, Night Sky #11 presents a star-filled sky based on photographs from an astronomy handbook. Developed over an extended period through successive layers of paint, sanding and detailed brushwork, the painting transforms a photographic source into a carefully constructed surface. The exhibition also includes To Fix the Image in Memory XIII, comprising a stone and a painted bronze replica. Together, these works consider perception, representation and the physical presence of the image.