Explosion at Sea
Vija Celmins · 1966 · Art Institute of Chicago
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From the museum
Explosion at Sea belongs to a group of paintings by Vija Celmins on the themes of war, technology, and devastation. In the mid-1960s, the artist began to use photographs from books, magazines, and newspapers found at secondhand stores and yard sales as the point of departure for her work. After locating a wealth of material on World War II—a conflict that was the backdrop of her childhood in Latvia—Celmins employed subtle layers of precise brushstrokes to construct a detailed image of an attack on an aircraft carrier. The resulting painting, like most of her works of this moment, creates a disturbing contrast between the intimacy of the format and brushwork and the haunting seriousness of the theme.
The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Details
- Maker
- Vija Celmins, American, born Latvia, 1938
- Date
- 1966
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 34.3 × 59.7 cm (13 1/2 × 23 1/2 in.)
- Place of origin
- United States
- Held by
- Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · Not on view
- Credit line
- Gift of Lannan Foundation