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German Plane
Artist
Vija Celmins
(Born 1938, Latvia)
Date1966
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 16 x 26 1/8 x 3/4 in. (40.64 x 66.36 x 1.91 cm)
Framed: 17 1/4 x 27 3/8 x 1 5/8 in. (43.82 x 69.53 x 4.13 cm)
Framed: 17 1/4 x 27 3/8 x 1 5/8 in. (43.82 x 69.53 x 4.13 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase, Sid W. Richardson Foundation Endowment Fund
Object number1996.2
Status
Not on viewSignedverso center "V. CELMINS/1966/LA."
Copyright© Vija Celmins. Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.
Category
Label TextVija Celmins’s small-scale, mostly monochrome images have made a quiet but formidable contribution to American art since the 1960s. She is known for her meticulous paintings, drawings, and prints of objects and of boundless environments such as starry skies, ocean surfaces, and desert floor. Working from photographs, taken herself or appropriated from other publications, the artist laboriously transposes one surface to another, photographic image to drawn or painted one—a process she terms “re-description.”
In 1966, living in California and absorbing the “Cool LA” scene known as West Coast Pop, Celmins began a series of grisaille paintings of violent and political imagery—World War II–era fighter planes, a revolver, car accidents, and explosions at sea—based on journalistic photographs culled from books and magazines. The Modern’s German Plane, 1966, is an important early example from these works. It is one of five paintings she made of single warplanes and is based on a magazine photograph.
Despite the fearsome implications of the bomber that takes up most of the painting’s surface, German Plane possesses an eerily calm atmosphere. The plane is depicted from a bird’s-eye view, but Celmins cropped the nose and tail, eliminating all context that might indicate scale. Frozen in motion and isolated in the composition, like a still life, the plane could be a child’s toy; at the same time, the aircraft is so tightly contained that it assumes a monumental quality. The landing gear is down, indicating that it is on or near the ground, but the background is diminished, generalized to the point of abstraction.
In 1966, living in California and absorbing the “Cool LA” scene known as West Coast Pop, Celmins began a series of grisaille paintings of violent and political imagery—World War II–era fighter planes, a revolver, car accidents, and explosions at sea—based on journalistic photographs culled from books and magazines. The Modern’s German Plane, 1966, is an important early example from these works. It is one of five paintings she made of single warplanes and is based on a magazine photograph.
Despite the fearsome implications of the bomber that takes up most of the painting’s surface, German Plane possesses an eerily calm atmosphere. The plane is depicted from a bird’s-eye view, but Celmins cropped the nose and tail, eliminating all context that might indicate scale. Frozen in motion and isolated in the composition, like a still life, the plane could be a child’s toy; at the same time, the aircraft is so tightly contained that it assumes a monumental quality. The landing gear is down, indicating that it is on or near the ground, but the background is diminished, generalized to the point of abstraction.