Vija Celmins Postcard

vija celmins collage of a black and white photo of the moon's surface, with some grid lines along the bottom and right, atop a photo postcard of what seems to be the moon, which peeks through a hole in the moonscape that corresponds exactly to a collaged photo of a round rock? or is it the surface the sea, on which a penguin is flapping its wings? which is offset to reveal the moon. celmins sent this to collage artist wallace berman in 1969, and it was in a 2019 show at matthew marks gallery
Vija Celmins, postcard inscribed “to Mr. Wallace Berman,” collage, 1969, 11×15 cm, via Matthew Marks Gallery

The day after humans landed on the moon, Vija Celmins collaged a photo of a penguin on a rock onto a photo of the lunar surface, onto a postcard of the moon, and she sent it to Wallace Berman.

According to the catalogue for the latest of Matthew Marks Gallery’s 100 Drawings exhibitions, held in 2019, Celmins had reached out to Berman to compliment his 1968 show at LACMA.

But that show ran from April-June, and the entire message on the back of this card was, “Cheers.” So this was not about that. It was just a, “Hey, penguin on the moon!” collage sent to a collage artist who was close to the hallucinatory witches shadowing JPL. Can you even imagine? I cannot.