The Art Institute of Chicago

Explosion at Sea, 1966 by Vija CelminsAuthor(s): Andrea D. BarnwellSource: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, Modern and ContemporaryArt: The Lannan Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago (1999), pp. 30-31+98-99Published by: The Art Institute of ChicagoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4112984 .

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Vija Celmins (AMERICAN; BORN LATVIA, 1938)

Explosion at Sea, 1966 Oil on canvas; 34.3 x 59.7 cm (131/2 x 231/2 in.) [see p. 86]

xplosion at Sea represents a significant moment in the

development of Vija Celmins's art. Celmins's early work depicts everyday objects with an emphasis on

rendering three-dimensional forms two-dimensionally. While she produced these paintings in the wake of Pop Art, her inter- est in the quotidian had nothing to do with issues of com- merce or the media but rather with the illusionistic process of

image-making itself. Celmins's mature work depicts expan- sive atmospheric spaces, such as seascapes, in which no human-made forms are visible, and galaxies that evoke the

mystery and glow of the universe. In their restricted palettes and meditative quality, Celmins's images relate more to the

perceptually based Minimalism of Agnes Martin, although Martin's work has always been purely abstract.

In the mid-I96os, Celmins started to use photographs from books, magazines, and newspapers that she found in secondhand stores and at yard sales as the point of departure for her paintings. After locating a wealth of material on World War II-including photographs of guns; assorted dis- asters; and American, German, and Japanese war planes- the artist executed a number of paintings and sculptures on the themes of war, technology, and devastation. It is to this

group of works that Explosion at Sea belongs. The meticulous and time-consuming methods Celmins

used to portray war have been compared to the painstaking efforts required to construct model airplanes.' In Explosion at Sea, a small, horizontal canvas, she employed subtle layers of precise brush strokes to construct a detailed image of an attack on an aircraft carrier.2 As in most of the works in the series, Celmins created here a disturbing contrast between the intimacy of the format and brushwork and the haunting seriousness of the theme. Moreover, although the composi- tion's careful detail links it to the vintage photographs that served as her sources, Celmins's exclusive use of thinly applied, austere, gray tonalities places the image at great remove from the violent realities of war.

Celmins's war series seems to be connected to her per- sonal history. As a child, she and her family were forced to flee their native Latvia when war threatened. After seeking refuge in Eastern Europe and then in West Germany, they arrived in the United States in I949. Celmins explained,

"I generally think of my childhood as being full of excite- ment and magic, and terror, too-bombs, fires, fear, escape- very eventful. It wasn't 'till I was ten years old and living in the United States that I realized living with these images was not everyone's experience."4 In works such as Explo- sion at Sea, Celmins's intense childhood experiences seem to have been given focus, filtered, and transformed by the

precision and concentration of her artistic process. A. D. B.

30 Museum Studies

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Museum Studies 31

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Selected References and Notes

References are keyed to artists' names, in alphabetical order. Following the references, also under artists' names, notes to the entries appear below titles of works. In cases of multiple works by individual artists, titles are listed in chronological order.

AHEARN, JOHN

Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum. South Bronx Hall of Fame: Sculp- ture by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres. Exh. cat. by Richard Goldstein, Michael Ventura, and Marilyn A. Zeitlin. I991.

Kramer, Janet. Whose Art Is It? Durham, N.C./London, 1994. Portland, Ore., Reed College, Douglas E Cooley Memorial Art Gallery.

Sculpture by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres: The South Bronx Hall ofFame and Other Realities. Exh. brochure by Susan Fillin-Yeh. 1993.

Schwartzman, Allan. Street Art. Garden City, N.Y, 1985. Pp. 78-97.

Red Peanut, 1980, pp. 52-53

I. Stephan Eins established Fashion Moda in 1978 in a storefront space in the South Bronx. He intended the gallery to be:

a place for art, science, invention, technology and fantasy. The philosophy of Fashion Moda is based on the premise that art/ creativity can happen anywhere. It can be made and appreciated by people who are known and unknown, trained and untrained, middle class and poor. Fashion Moda has created a situation where local artists and residents can interrelate with down- town, national and international art community to exchange ideas and share energies (Schwartzman, p. 78).

2. Notes from Ahearn's visit to the Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles, Nov. 15, 1989.

ARTSCHWAGER, RICHARD

Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, et al. Richard Artschwager's Theme(s). Exh. cat. 1979.

Celant, Germano. "Richard Artschwager's Concrete Mirages." In Madison, Wis., University of Wisconsin, Elvehjem Museum of Art. Richard Artschwager, public (public). Exh. cat. by Russell Panczenko et al. 1991. Pp. 9-15.

McDevitt, Jan. "The Object: Still Life." Craft Horizons 25 (Sept.-Oct. 1965), PP. 28-30, 54.

Madoff, Steven Henry. "Richard Artschwager's Sleight of Mind." ARTnews 87 (Jan. 1988), pp. 114-21.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Richard Artschwager. Exh. cat. by Richard Armstrong. 1988.

Table with Pink Tablecloth, 1964, pp. 26-27

1. Artschwager, quoted in McDevitt, p. 30.

2. Madoff, p. 116.

BURTON, SCOTT

Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art. Scott Burton. Exh. cat. by Brenda Richardson. 1986.

Diisseldorf, Kunstverein fiir die Rheinlande und Westfalen. Scott Burton: Skulpturen 1980-89. Exh. cat. by Jiri Svestka. 1989.

London, Tate Gallery. Scott Burton. Exh. cat. by Richard Francis. 1985.

Bronze Chair, designed 1972, cast 1975, pp. 46-47

I. Burton, quoted in Baltimore, p. 19. Queen Anne Revival style was popular from the i86os through the early twentieth century in England and the United States. Developed in reaction to the Gothic Revival, Queen Anne Revival drew from Dutch-influenced design in England during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

2. The noted art patron Marion Stroud Swingle, who briefly owned the piece before returning it to the artist, paid the $5,000 cost of fabrication. In 1979 Burton made a pastiche cast of the Bronze Chair called Bronze Chair (Replica), now in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.

3. Bronze Chair can be read for example in light of a later, unrealized pro- posal for a public park in Smithtown, New York. In 1976 Burton designed an outdoor environment based upon the popular vernacular of a middle- class American living room. The artist envisioned the standard wall-to-wall carpet as a manicured lawn, on which he would place common versions of Victorian and Chippendale reproduction-furniture cast in bronze.

4. In I991 the Estate of Scott Burton, following the stipulations of the artist's will, offered The Art Institute of Chicago the opportunity to pur- chase Bronze Chair at roughly half its current market value, after The Museum of Modern Art, New York (cobeneficiary of the estate), declined to acquire the piece. Charles E Stuckey, then Curator of Twentieth- Century Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute and a longtime sup- porter of Burton, embarked on a spirited, grassroots campaign to raise money for the acquisition. A wide range of Burton's friends, supporters, and admirers made contributions in large and small amounts. Ultimately, Lannan Foundation agreed to acquire the piece, promising that it would enter the museum's collection no later than January i, 2000. The thou- sands of dollars raised were returned to the individual donors, and Bronze Chair came to the Art Institute in 1997 as part of the foundation's larger gift of objects.

CELMINS, VI3A

Los Angeles, Newport Harbor Art Museum. Vija Celmins: A Survey Exhibition. Exh. cat. by Betty Turnbull. 1979.

Philadelphia, Institute of Contemporary Art:. Vija Celmins. Exh. cat. by Judith Tannenbaum. 1992.

Princethal, Nancy. "Vija Celmins: Material Fictions." Parkett 44 (I995), pp. 25-28.

Relyea, Lane. "Earth to Vija Celmins." Artforum 32 (Oct. 1993), pp. 55- 59, 115.

98 Museum Studies

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Explosion at Sea, 1966, pp. 30-31

I. Philadelphia, p. 15.

2. According to David McKee (McKee to Lisa Lyons of Lannan Founda- tion, Los Angeles, 1992), Explosion at Sea is based on a photograph of an unsuccessful Kamikaze pilot attack on a United States aircraft carrier, the Suwannee, which took place in October 1944 in the Pacific theater of World War II.

3. On the relationship of the series to Celmins's childhood, see Los Angeles; and Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vija Celmins, exh. brochure (i993).

4. Celmins, quoted in Philadelphia, p. 15.

CLOSE, CHUCK

Close, Chuck. The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of His Subjects. New York, I997.

Guare, John. Chuck Close: Life and Work, 1988-1995. New York, 1995. Lyons, Lisa, and Robert Storr. Chuck Close. New York, 1987. Minneapolis, Walker Art Center. Close Portraits. Exh. cat. by Lisa Lyons

and Martin Friedman. 1980. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, et al. Chuck Close. Exh. cat. by

Robert Storr et al. 1998.

Alex, 1991, pp. 74-75

I. The Lannan Collection contains several objects related to the I991 Alex painting, including a Polaroid of Alex Katz (Checklist no. ii) and a Polaroid used as a maquette (Checklist no. 12).

2. Close, pp. 316-17.

3. Both paintings actually contain a range of blues and browns despite their grisaille effect.

4. Close, p. 319-

5. Ibid.

Alex/Reduction Prints, 1991-93, pp. 76-77

I. Linoleum was originally composed of linseed oil, cork, and binding agents. It is much easier to cut into than modern synthetic linoleums, which are all plastic-based. Battleship linoleum, which dates back to the turn of the twentieth century, came in huge sheets used for the decks of ships. Linoleum manufactured with the original formula is hard to find nowadays, but especially so in battleship-sized sheets.

2. Deborah Wye, "Changing Expressions: Printmaking," in New York, p. 8o.

DEFEO, JAY

Berkeley, University of California, University Art Museum. Jay DeFeo: Works on Paper. Exh. cat. by Sidra Stich. 1989.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Beat Culture and the New America: 195o0-965. Exh. cat. 1995.

Philadelphia, Moore College of Art and Design, Goldie Paley Gallery. Jay DeFeo: Selected Works 1952-1989. Exh. cat. 1996.

San Francisco, Museo ItaloAmericano.Jay DeFeo: The Florence View and Related Works 1950-1954. Exh. cat. with essays by Klaus Kertess, Constance Lewallen, and Robert A. Whyte. 1997-

San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute. Jay DeFeo: Selected Works, Past and Present. Exh. cat. by Thomas Albright and David S. Rubin. 1984.

The Annunciation, 1957-59, pp. 18-19

i. Philadelphia, p. ii.

2. DeFeo to J. Patrick Lannan, Sr., 1959; published in ibid., pp. 12-13-

FRANCIS, SAM

Paris, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume. Sam Francis, les annies parisi- ennes, 195o0-961. Exh. cat. 1995.

Selz, Peter. Sam Francis. Rev. ed. New York, 1982.

In Lovely Blueness, 1955-56, pp. 16-17

i. Francis, quoted in Selz, p. 20.

2. Friedrich H6lderlin, Hymns and Fragments, trans. by Richard Sieburth (Princeton, N.J., 1984), p. 249.

FRIEDMAN, TOM

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago. Affinities: Chuck Close and Tom Friedman. Exh. brochure by Madeleine Grynsztejn. 1996.

New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Projects 5o: Tom Friedman. Exh. cat. and interview by Robert Storr. 1995.

St. Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum. Currents 70: Tom Friedman. Exh. cat. by Rochelle Steiner. 1997.

Untitled, 1993, pp. 80-81

I. Friedman started with a small, glue-infused core of stiffened string, so that the work would withstand the rigors of being moved.

2. According to Friedman, the connection to "Cousin It" pleases him not only for the linguistic suggestion of vagueness carried by the name and subject, but also for the somewhat corny humor and pop familiarity of the television show. Friedman, conversation with author, Mar. 8, 1999.

3. Ibid.

GONZALEZ-TORRES, FELIX

Gonzalez-Torres, Felix. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Interview by Tim Rollins; essay by Susan Cahan; short story by Jan Avgikos. New York, i993.

Graz, Switzerland, Neue Galerie Graz. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rudolf Stingel. Exh. cat. by Jan Avgikos. 1994.

Hannover, Sprengel Museum, et al. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. 2 vols. Exh. cat. and cat. rais. by Dietmar Elger. Ostfildern-Ruit/New York, 1997.

Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Exh. cat. 1994.

Munich, Sammlung Goetz. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roni Horn. Exh. cat. 1995. New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

Exh. cat. by Nancy Spector. 1995.

Museum Studies 99

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