The Ocean Painting That Set Vija Celmins' Auction Record
3 min read · 11 Jul 2025
Untitled (Ocean). Image courtesy of Phillips
Vija Celmins' Untitled (Ocean) (1987) sold for $7.75m at Phillips in New York on June 23, 2021. The oil on canvas work had been traded once in the past.
Vija Celmins (born 1938, in Riga) is a Latvian-American artist best known for her meticulous drawings and paintings of the sea, star fields and spider webs.
In 1968, the artist, whose Los Angeles studio was near Venice Beach, began taking photographs of the Pacific Ocean and using them as a source for her art.
Untitled (Ocean) featured in the artist’s major retrospective at the Met Breuer in 2019. It dates from the time the artist moved to New York and returned to painting after focusing on drawing for more than a decade. The record-breaking sale at Phillips was only the second time one of her ocean paintings had come to auction.
Her monochrome drawing Untitled (Big Sea #2) of 1969 is among the key works in the artist's 2025 retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler, which opened in June and runs until September.
Night Sky #7. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
The sale beat the artist’s previous auction record by $1.16m, a 17% rise. Her previous record was set by Night Sky #7 (1995), which sold for $6.59m at Sotheby's on June 29, 2020.
A Brief History of Vija Celmins at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021-06-23 | Untitled (Ocean) | $7.75m | 18 % | Phillips | New York |
2020-06-29 | Night Sky #7 | $6.59m | 56 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2017-11-15 | Lead Sea #2 | $4.21m | 23 % | Christie's | New York |
2014-09-24 | Burning Plane | $3.41m | 42 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2013-11-12 | Night Sky #14 | $2.4m | 111 % | Christie's | New York |
2012-05-08 | Untitled #8 | $1.14m | 27 % | Christie's | New York |
2011-11-08 | Sea Drawing with Whale | $902,500 | 80 % | Christie's | New York |
2005-11-09 | Pan | $500,000 | 4 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2003-05-13 | Untitled - Ocean | $480,000 | 13 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2003-02-06 | Untitled - sea 10 | $425,200 | 18 % | Sotheby's | London |
1999-11-17 | Untitled Big Sea No.2 | $360,000 | - | Sotheby's | New York |
Get the HENI News Daily Art Digest delivered to your inbox