{"data":{"id":"8035","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":8035,"topgoose_id":15525,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":8035,"title":"Ocean Surface Woodcut","display_artist_text":"Vija Celmins","display_date":"1992","accession_number":"92.34","dimensions":"Sheet: 19 3/8 × 15 1/2 in. (49.2 × 39.4 cm)\r\nImage: 8 13/16 × 11 15/16 in. (22.4 × 30.3 cm)","medium":"Woodcut","department":"collection","classification":"Prints","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from the Print Committee","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"38/50","publication_info":"Printed by The Grenfell Press","description":"\u003cp\u003eVija Celmins, \u003cem\u003eOcean Surface Woodcut\u003c/em\u003e, 1992. Woodcut, sheet: 19 3/8 × 15 1/2 in. (49.2 × 39.4 cm)\r\nImage: 8 13/16 × 11 15/16 in. (22.4 × 30.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Print Committee 92.34. © Vija Celmins\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eSince the late 1960s, Vija Celmins has returned to the subject of the ocean time and again. In \u003ci\u003eOcean Surface Woodcut\u003c/i\u003e, Celmins separates the subject from its usual narrative associations, objectively recording the waves with precise calibrations of weight, shape, and texture. The surface of the ocean here is neutral, neither stormy nor serene. There are no boats to estimate the expanse of the depicted area and no horizon line fixes the water in a physical place. Like many of Celmins’s subjects, the image here grows progressively elusive with extended viewing. Celmins has described her process as involving “. . .a kind of rigorous building, and letting the material just be the material. Letting the image be more and more like an armature. In some [works] the image is almost nothing. . .For some reason I’m able to do that over and over again without getting bored.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\n\n\u0026nbsp;","ai_alt_text":"A black-and-white etching showing rippling ocean waves framed on white paper.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:26:52.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:08.545-05:00","images":[{"id":99339,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/8035/92_34_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"245","type":"artist"}]}}}}