"If in poetry language is both sharpened and distilled, both loaded with and emptied of meaning, then in Mitchell’s canvases the elements of paintings – paint, color and canvas – are both themselves and at the same t.mes replete with expressive connotation. This is the dialectic struggle waged by Mitchell’s work”
A spectacular assault of unrestrained expression and rich color, Untitled encapsulates the full force of Joan Mitchell’s singular abstract vernacular. Executed in 1960, during a critical early moment which is widely considered the most formative period of the artist’s career, Untitled represents the pinnacle of Mitchell’s unique mode of Abstract Expressionism. The present work is distinguished by its exceptional provenance; Untitled was held in the collects ion of the artist in her lifet.mes , then going to her Estate and eventually being acquired from the Joan Mitchell Foundation by the present owner, Mitchell's longt.mes gallerist, John Cheim. Untitled is further distinguished by its exhibition history, having been included in many notable exhibitions, including Joan Mitchell: Paintings from the Middle of the Last Century 1953-1962 at Cheim & Read in 2018. Across the impastoed surface of the canvas, luscious swathes of radiant reds and blues are tempered by strokes of earthy green which anchor the composition. This rich blend of hues generates fluid suggestions of figure and ground, the component parts of which find harmony through the lyrical choreography and Mitchell’s extraordinary abstract markmarking. For its sheer force of painterly conviction, tactile physicality and complex coloration Untitled is an exceptional example of Mitchell’s highly acclaimed paintings from the early 1960s.
In 1949, after attending the Art Institute of Chicago, Joan Mitchell moved to New York and was immediately enraptured by the city’s dynamic art scene. Mitchell was a rare female presence in the otherwise male-centric world of the New York Abstract Expressionists. She moved in the same avant-garde circles as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Hans Hofmann, both socially and professionally, and was included in the seminal Ninth Street Show in 1951. Beginning in 1952, with her first solo exhibition at the New Gallery, 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 abstract machismo of the New York School with an elegant European fidelity to nature.
RIGHT: Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955. Buffalo AKG Art Museum © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Klaus Kertess notes an affinity between Mitchell and a fellow American artist who similarly lived and worked abroad in Europe in the late 1950s and early 1960s: “In these same years, [Cy] Twombly’s expressiveness, like Mitchell’s, blossomed into fullness. The jubilant lyricism of his paintings with their frequent scatological references and discursive writerly markmaking pulsed with subjective metaphoricality. …Both Mitchell and Twombly played a major role in keeping drawing vividly alive on painting’s surface” (Klaus Kertess in Exh. Cat., New York, Cheim & Read, Joan Mitchell: Frémicourt Paintings 1960-1962, New York, 2005, n.p.). The complex graphic nature of Mitchell’s technique, as exemplified in Untitled, like that of Cy Twombly, possesses indisputable communicative powers. Wholly abstract, and entirely unencumbered by figuration, Untitled conveys the clear and forceful message of Mitchell’s undeniable mastery of the art of abstraction, and her irrefutable status as the foremost female painter of the heroic generation of Abstract Expressionist artists.
“I paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me — and remembered feelings of them, which of course become transformed. I could certainly never mirror nature. I would more like to paint what it leaves with me.”
Mitchell’s work from the early 1960s marked a shift in sensibility for the artist, in which she moved away from the dynamic, vigorous mark-making associated with the male Abstract Expressionists into a subtly more lyrical style inspired by her surroundings. Following her relocation to France in 1959, her chromatic range dramatically shifted, as she introduced shades of verdant green, rosy reds, lilacs and ochres, moving away from the restrictions of primary colors. In Untitled, color and form beat across every square inch of the present work with an ineffable rhythm, enveloping the viewer in a dazzling fusion of melodic lyricism with passionate mark-making. As curator David Anfam describes of Mitchell’s works from this period, “Like Athena sprung fully formed from the head of Zeus, this self-styled “lady painter” had come abreast with her erstwhile peers’ to such an extent that ‘it might be no great exaggeration to regard Mitchell in these years as the foremost female American abstractionist” (David Anfam, Joan Mitchell: Paintings from the Middle of the Last Century 1953-1962, New York, 2017, p.7).
The early 1960s simultaneously marked a period of artistic inspiration and deep personal turmoil for the artist and her works from this t.mes , such as Untitled, are characterized by an overwhelming lyrical passion and intimate sent.mes ntality. Her father had passed away in Chicago and her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Beneath her brush, the canvas of Untitled thus transforms into a performative arena, within which Mitchell has staged a furiously orchestrated symphony of chromatic activity, exploring pure expression. Breathtaking in its painterly bravura, Untitled constitutes a remarkable sensory engagement with nature, revealing Mitchell’s artistic fervor and personal turmoil and providing an endlessly engrossing and dynamic visual experience.
In the present work, the vitality of nature takes center stage as her energetic brushwork conjures not only the evocation of a landscape, but also stimulates an immersive sensory experience. Of this she has said, “I paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me — and remembered feelings of them, which of course become transformed. I could certainly never mirror nature. I would more like to paint what it leaves with me.” (Joan Mitchell quoted in: Exh. Cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Joan Mitchell, September 2021-January 2022, p. 285). The present work endures as a beacon of colorful and textural vibrancy, played out on the canvas with a sense of intimacy and urgency that is singular to Joan Mitchell. A veritable tour de force of explosive, painterly expression, Untitled embodies the sublime confluence of emotional urgency, evocative color and form that characterizes the most formidable achievements of Mitchell’s oeuvre.
