Colorful abstraction, sweeping brushstrokes, large and multi-paneled paintings are some impressions from Joan Mitchell’s works. Joan Mitchell was an American painter and printmaker who worked around the 1950s. She was a recognized and successful artist in the midst of a male-dominated art circle at that time.
Joan Mitchell. City Landscape (1955). Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 80 x 80 inches.© Estate of Joan Mitchell, Courtesy of the Joan Mitchell Foundation – The Art Institute of Chicago
Mitchell lived between New York and Paris. She was inspired by the urban energy where she lived. In City Landscape (1955), she transformed the city atmosphere into a wonderful abstract painting in the horizontal brushstrokes of vibrant color. The figure is in contrast with white background, makes the viewers focus on a lively and colorful city.
Mitchell’s art ideas also came from nature, music, and poetry. She did not aim to paint a representative object or recognizable image but to convey emotions. In Hemlock (1956), blue and green colors coalesce in a large area of cool white. Her long and short brushstrokes create a certain rhythm and movement.
Joan Mitchell. Hemlock (1956). Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 91 x 80 inches. © Estate of Joan Mitchell, Courtesy of the Joan Mitchell Foundation – Whitney Museum of American Art
This painting might remind us of the Hemlock tree, but it also invokes a firm and fearless feeling. The title is supposedly derived from Wallace Stevens’s poem (1916), Domination of Black, which mentioned a reference to hemlock: “Out of the window, / I saw how the planets gathered / Like the leaves themselves / Turning in the wind. / I saw how the night came, / Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks. . .”
Mitchell was one of the prominent artists in the Postwar era. She launched her career amid the white, male-dominated art world. Co-curators of Joan Mitchell’s exhibition, Sarah Roberts and Katy Siegel note that “Mitchell was not simply ‘making it’ in an environment created and occupied by men, she was actively remaking painting and its possibilities”.
Mitchell is often associated with the well-known American Abstract Expressionist painters, like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. She referred to herself as the “last Abstract Expressionist.” Nevertheless, her works also have a close connection to impressionism. Elaine de Kooning labeled her “Abstract Impressionist”, which balances Impressionists’ tendency to portray the optical effects of nature and the Abstract Expressionists’ tendency to depict emotional expression in visual representation.
Joan Mitchell. La Grande Vallee XIV (For a Little While) (1983). Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 110 x 236 1/4 inches. © Estate of Joan Mitchell, Courtesy of the Joan Mitchell Foundation – Musée National d’Art Modern/Centre Georges Pompidou.
In La Grande Vallee XIV (For a Little While)/1983, we can find impressionist influence on Mitchell’s abstract painting. This painting is comprised of mixed yellow, blue, and green colors that look like in the watery surface or a garden from distance. The Grand Valley is a poetic and captivating painting. It refers to a story of a secret place but also sometimes to Mitchell’s grief over the deaths of her beloved ones.
Mitchell’s works that spanned more than four decades can be viewed in an exhibition entitled Joan Mitchell at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), from September 4, 2021–January 17, 2022. This exhibition is co-organized by SFMOMA and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). This exhibition will travel to the Baltimore Museum of Art (March 6–August 14, 2022), and later to Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (Fall 2022).