“Meaning and emotional intensity are produced structurally…by a whole series of oppositions: dense versus transparent strokes; gridded structure versus more chaotic, ad hoc construction; weight on the bottom of the canvas versus weight at the top; light versus dark; choppy versus continuous brushstrokes; harmonious and clashing juxtapositions of hue—all are potent signs of meaning and feeling.”
E xuberant ribbons of color leap and vault with unbridled energy across the surface of this mesmerizing painting, revealing a veritable tour de force of painterly mark-making. Executed at the beginning of what is considered Joan Mitchell’s most formative decade, the 1960s, Untitled represents a pinnacle in Mitchell’s unique brand of Abstract Expressionism. Captivatingly atmospheric, the present work brings together the visual languages of abstraction and landscape in a maelstrom of pigment. Painted at an early market peak in Mitchell’s long and varied career, characterized by critically lauded and commercially successful gallery shows, the present work endures as a beacon of chromatic and textural expression, played out throughout the canvas with an entrancing sense of intimacy and urgency that is singular to the artist. Brushstrokes take on qualities that are calligraphic, with discretely varying textures as a result of the artist’s treatment of pigment, as swathes of paint are liberally flicked, thinned and blurred across the impressive surface of the present work. Through this rhythmic and instinctual extension of the artist’s gesture, Untitled conveys the power of memory, experience, and sensory engagement with nature, themes that are at the essential core of Mitchell’s practice. Having remained in the same collects ion since its initial acquisition over 60 years ago, this rarefied treasure has never before appeared at auction.
Alongside a masterful command of her palette, Mitchell employs an incredible range of gestures, from peaks of impasto, to saturated smears of pigment, to delicate passages of thin wash. Dynamic strokes of paint are offset by creamy white passages throughout the composition, which lends balance and opposition to this abstracted landscape. In Untitled, tempestuous ochres mingle with deep rose, punctuated by a bright teal and modulating shades of green, together generating a frenetic energy within the center of the composition. The dizzying turbulence of these gestural strokes are then beautifully counteracted with airy whites and shades of beige above, while soft strokes of green ground the composition below. Drawing inspiration from Impressionist painters and their particular reverence for nature and color, Mitchell’s canvases are charged with an atmospheric intensity. She was undoubtedly an impressionist in her own right as the present work professes a remarkable engagement with nature that seems to vibrate with life.
RIGHT: Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955. collects ion Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. © 2022 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
After several years in New York, developing her distinct style alongside Willem de Kooning, Grace Hartigan and Franz Kline amongst others, Mitchell came to establish an abstract vernacular of her own, despite the keen critical and commercial appetite for the work of her male peers. Beginning in 1952, with her first solo exhibition at the New Gallery in New York Mitchell entered the artistic discourse surrounding Abstract Expressionism as an important leading voice, described as “one of America's most brilliant 'Action-Painters.' At a t.mes when many young artists are withdrawing introspectively from the bold experimentation of their elders … her art expands in the wake of her generous energy.” (Irving Sandler, “Young Moderns and Modern Masters: Joan Mitchell,” ArtNews, March 1957, p. 32) This pivotal moment heralded a seminal period in Mitchell’s career, during which she moved back and forth between New York and Paris, seamlessly blending the expressive hard-edge abstraction espoused by the New York School with an elegant European fidelity to nature.
"The downward drips and splashes and centralizing arching of her strokes have an in-and-out dynamic that is unlike Pollock's more lateral thrust of paint flung with the canvas on the floor. Pollock’s paintings are more all-engulfing; his ‘I am nature’ is very different than Mitchell’s being with nature in memory”
Joan Mitchell continues to be recognised as an influential figure in Western art history, celebrated both during and after her lifet.mes . A landmark retrospective of over eighty distinguished works is open to the public at the Baltimore Museum of Art now through August 14, 2022, demonstrative of Mitchells ongoing relevance and enduring legacy as one of the most celebrated female artists of the 20th century.
