Ocean 1975

This is Vija Celmins’ ‘Ocean’, made with lithography. Look at the way she's built up the image, dot by dot, mark by mark. Art-making is all about that process, it's a conversation between you and the materials. Up close, you can see the texture of the paper, the slight variations in tone. Celmins is interested in surfaces, the way light plays across them, the way things appear. It’s like she’s trying to capture something fleeting, like a memory. See those marks, building up the crest of each tiny wave, each one a little different, a little off. It makes the ocean feel endless, you know? It reminds me a bit of Chuck Close, another artist obsessed with detail, with the way small gestures can build up into something huge and overwhelming. But where Close is all about the face, Celmins is drawn to these vast, impersonal landscapes. There’s no one right way to see it, or any artwork for that matter.