Parkett No. 44 Vija Celmins, Andreas Gurskey, Rirkrit Tiravanija

by Vija Celmins (Artist), Andreas Gursky, Rirkrit Tiravanija

Here, Parkett showcases the work of four artists whose work foregrounds the distance between the observer and the thing observed. The observer in question may be simultaneously the artist and the viewer, and the observations may concern the world, the society or the self--but in each case, these artists subvert the laws of objectivity versus subjectivity, conceptualism versus realism, the verbal versus the visual. Cultural nomads or archaeologists of information, Lothar Baumgarten's installations, language and other systems of categorization are turned inside out, revealing the anxieties such nomenclature is designed to suppress. For Tiravanija, however, the medium of exchange is not words but consumables, whose traces tell us who we are. In the epic everyday spaces of Andreas Gursky's photographic spaces, as much as in the extraterrestrial content of Vija Celmins' pictures, the universal and the mundane are held in taut suspension, resulting in images that remain simultaneously intimate and enigmatic. Other features of this special issue include Lynne Cooke on “Micromegas,” Alexandre Melo on peripheries, Jason Simon on Mark Dion and more.

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

American painter, sculptor, object-maker and draughtswoman, of Latvian birth. In 1944 her family fled to eastern Germany, eventually settling near Esslingen am Neckar (Baden-Württemberg) in the west. In 1948 they moved to the USA, staying briefly in New York before resettling in Indianapolis. Celmins studied painting at the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis (1955–62) and regularly visited New York to see the work of the Abstract Expressionists. After attending the summer session at Yale University, New Haven, where she met a strong community of students and artists, she decided to become a painter (1961). She then attended the University of California, Los Angeles (1962–5). From 1966 Celmins took photographs as subjects for paintings. In painted and drawn works since 1968 she drew upon photographs from books, magazines and those taken by herself, including views of the sea, desert and constellations.