.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
"If Mitchell had had to choose but one color out of which to make a rainbow, it would certainly have been blue. Whether the blue that makes darkness visible, the blue of water, the blues in Cézanne, van Gogh, and Matisse, the blue of morning glories or delphiniums, or 'the blues' of jazz and sadness, blue was critical to the life of Mitchell's painting."-Klaus Kertess, Joan Mitchell, p. 29
Joan Mitchell's Untitled is a dynamic example of the artist's large scale abstractions from one of the high points of her oeuvre. Executed shortly after the artist settled permanently in Paris, Mitchell's new living circumstances inspired a delirious group of paintings including Untitled, which are heroic in scale and assured in execution.
Like most of her work, Untitled is abstract, but references landscape and natural forms/forces. The earthtones at the lower register suggest a landscape and the glorious blues evoke water and sky simultaneously. Mitchell is able to harmoniously balance a dizzying array of paint applications, from broad strokes, whiplash drips as well as more intimate gestures.
"Mitchell's paintings from 1960 to 1962 are marked by a spirit of heightened passion and spontaneity: free-wheeling arm-long strokes swoop across the canvas, twist and tangle with drips and splatters, and often terminate in thick globs of paint. Most works of 1960-61 present an array of contrasts: broad, robust strokes of vivid and deep color concentrated at the center are played against delicate trailing lines of shimmering whites and high-keyed tones that dart inward from the thinly painted and stained surrounding areas" (J. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, exh. cat., New York, 1988, p. 57).
Mitchell moved permanently to Paris in 1959, renting a studio at 10, rue Fremicourt. Although she would continue to visit and exhibit in New York, all of her future paintings would be executed in her adopted country. Mitchell embraced the Parisian life, was an active member of the artistic milieu and was forever acquiring art supplies and materials in tucked-away art supplies shops. In 1960, she had her first solo exhibition in Europe, at the Galerie Neufville, Paris.
Among its many attractions, Mitchell was drawn to France's connection to the history of oil painting as a craft, but more importantly, she was drawn to the artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, with whom she had started a relationship in 1955. They moved in together in 1959, which marked an important acceleration of a tempestuous relationship that would last almost 25 years.
By this time, Mitchell's painting has shrugged off the most of the earlier influences of Gorky and de Kooning. Unititled's palette shows more of an affinity with the works of Cézanne, Monet and Matisse, and their fascination with the French countryside. American and Parisian based critic John Ashbery wrote about this period of Mitchell's work, stating, "[Mitchell's work] looks strong and relaxed, classical and refreshing at the same time; it has both the time and the will to be itself. To the strength, the capacity for immediately sizing up a situation, the instinctive knowledge of what painting is all about which characterize the best postwar art in America, the sojourn in Paris has contributed intelligence and introspection which heighten rather than attenuate these gifts. It seems that such an artist has ripened more slowly and more naturally in the Parisian climate of indifference than she might have in the intensive care-wards of New York" (J. Ashbery, "An Expressionist in Paris," Art News, 64, Sept. 1965, p. 63).
Joan Mitchell's Untitled is a dynamic example of the artist's large scale abstractions from one of the high points of her oeuvre. Executed shortly after the artist settled permanently in Paris, Mitchell's new living circumstances inspired a delirious group of paintings including Untitled, which are heroic in scale and assured in execution.
Like most of her work, Untitled is abstract, but references landscape and natural forms/forces. The earthtones at the lower register suggest a landscape and the glorious blues evoke water and sky simultaneously. Mitchell is able to harmoniously balance a dizzying array of paint applications, from broad strokes, whiplash drips as well as more intimate gestures.
"Mitchell's paintings from 1960 to 1962 are marked by a spirit of heightened passion and spontaneity: free-wheeling arm-long strokes swoop across the canvas, twist and tangle with drips and splatters, and often terminate in thick globs of paint. Most works of 1960-61 present an array of contrasts: broad, robust strokes of vivid and deep color concentrated at the center are played against delicate trailing lines of shimmering whites and high-keyed tones that dart inward from the thinly painted and stained surrounding areas" (J. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, exh. cat., New York, 1988, p. 57).
Mitchell moved permanently to Paris in 1959, renting a studio at 10, rue Fremicourt. Although she would continue to visit and exhibit in New York, all of her future paintings would be executed in her adopted country. Mitchell embraced the Parisian life, was an active member of the artistic milieu and was forever acquiring art supplies and materials in tucked-away art supplies shops. In 1960, she had her first solo exhibition in Europe, at the Galerie Neufville, Paris.
Among its many attractions, Mitchell was drawn to France's connection to the history of oil painting as a craft, but more importantly, she was drawn to the artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, with whom she had started a relationship in 1955. They moved in together in 1959, which marked an important acceleration of a tempestuous relationship that would last almost 25 years.
By this time, Mitchell's painting has shrugged off the most of the earlier influences of Gorky and de Kooning. Unititled's palette shows more of an affinity with the works of Cézanne, Monet and Matisse, and their fascination with the French countryside. American and Parisian based critic John Ashbery wrote about this period of Mitchell's work, stating, "[Mitchell's work] looks strong and relaxed, classical and refreshing at the same time; it has both the time and the will to be itself. To the strength, the capacity for immediately sizing up a situation, the instinctive knowledge of what painting is all about which characterize the best postwar art in America, the sojourn in Paris has contributed intelligence and introspection which heighten rather than attenuate these gifts. It seems that such an artist has ripened more slowly and more naturally in the Parisian climate of indifference than she might have in the intensive care-wards of New York" (J. Ashbery, "An Expressionist in Paris," Art News, 64, Sept. 1965, p. 63).