Madeleine Thien on Vija Celmins鈥檚 Bikini
Booker-nominated, Chinese-Canadian author Madeleine Thien chooses a work by Latvian-Amercian artist Vija Celmins.
Art critic Alastair Sooke, in the company of some of the leading creatives of our age, continues his deep dive into the stunning works in the Museum of Modern Art's collection, whilst exploring what it really means 鈥渢o see鈥� art.
Today's edition features a work by a Latvian-American visual artist best known for photo-realistic paintings and drawings of natural environments and phenomena such as the ocean, spider webs, star fields, and rocks. Award-winning novelist Madeleine Thien has chosen "Bikini" Celmins's depiction of an atomic blast which took place in Bikini Lagoon on 25 July 1946, part of the United States鈥� Operation Crossroads 鈥� one of a series of twenty-three nuclear detonations in the western Pacific. What has drawn the novelist's eye to this work - and how does she see it?
Producer: Paul Kobrak
Main Image:
Vija Celmins, Bikini, 1968. Graphite on acrylic ground on paper, 13 3/8 x 18 1/4" (34 x 46.4 cm). Gift of Edward R. Broida. Museum of Modern Art, NY, 673.2005. 漏 2019 Vija Celmins
Last on
More episodes
![]()
Episode 19: Bikini by Vija Celmins (1968)
Selected by Chinese-Canadian author Madeleine Thien
Broadcasts
- Thu 5 Dec 2019 22:4591热爆 Radio 3
- Mon 22 Aug 2022 22:4591热爆 Radio 3
Featured in...
![]()
Arts
Creativity, performance, debate
View the works of art
See all of the works from the Museum of Modern Art selected by guests in this series.
What did we find out when a cosmologist looked at Van Gogh鈥檚 The Starry Night?
How does scientist Janna Levin see Van Gogh's night sky, painted from inside an asylum?
Podcast
-
![]()
The Way I See It
Leading creative thinkers choose an artwork from MoMA and talk about how it inspires them.
