Vija Celmins: You're looking at a painting called The Heater, a painting I did in 1964. I was in graduate school, UCLA, about 24 years old. I was floundering around in my painting. Doing mostly abstract expressionist painting, and I fell into this period where I was throwing away a lot of ideas. So I started painting these simple paintings of objects in my studio. Like the heater you see here, and my lamps. I painted my refrigerator, all the food. And the idea was that I wanted to kind of quiet down and just look and paint. Like eye to brain.

Tony Berlant: The irony to me always with Vija is the understated small quietness is so dramatic and engulfing. Especially during a period when people were making big, gestural, abstract, muscular paintings. She always felt that the rules did not apply to her.