Object number2025.8.4

Saturn Stamps

Date1995

Artist Vija Celmins (American b.Latvia, 1939-)

CultureLatvian, American

MediumOffset lithograph

EditionEdition 125 of 200

DimensionsImage: 12 1/4 x 9 3/8 in. (31.1 x 23.8 cm)
Framed: 15 3/4 x 12 7/8 x 3/4 in. (40 x 32.7 x 1.9 cm)

Credit LineGift of John Tevis, class of 1991, in honor of Christine Havelock

On View

Not on view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

SignedOn recto, signed lower right corner in pencil: V. Celmins

InscribedOn recto, by artist, lower left corner in pencil: 125/200; lower right corner: [signature].

ProvenanceRichard Anderson Fine Art;
Purchased by John Tevis

Label TextVija Celmins immigrated to the United States after fleeing her native Latvia as a child during World War II. Arriving without knowing how to speak English, she turned to drawing as a primary means of expression. Rooted in this artistic exploration from childhood, Celmins has become known for her meticulous, quietly intense renderings of natural and cosmic phenomena. Celmins builds images through patience, observation, and precision. Her work plays with the tension between the uniqueness of artistic labor and the uniformity of printed media. In Saturn Stamps, Celmins transforms the familiar format of a postage sheet into a meditation on the emerging visual culture of the Space Age. Celmins treats these scientific images not as symbols of conquest, but as readymade imagery combining the everyday item of stamps with the nature of celestial objects. Repeating her detailed image of Saturn across stamps, she reflects on how cosmic imagery entered daily life, bridging vast, unfathomable distances through mass reproduction and inviting viewers to contemplate the quiet expanses beyond.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu