Concentric Bearings A 1984

Vija Celmins made this print, Concentric Bearings A, by working and reworking the surface, coaxing it until the image emerged. You see how she pairs two distinct images: a patch of night sky, constellations blazing against a dark background and what looks like a mechanical contraption, circles spinning on a wooden frame. I imagine Celmins was in her studio, thinking about how things turn, how they’re made, and how we see the world. She had to decide how to render it, what materials to use, how dark or light to make it. Did she struggle with the darks? Did she keep going over it until it looked just right? I like to think of her process as a kind of conversation, or maybe even a collaboration, with the image itself. Celmins is one of those artists who makes you want to look closer, to really see what's there, and to think about how it all connects. Like Jasper Johns or Agnes Martin, she asks us to slow down and to contemplate. She gives us the gift of a new way of seeing.