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Lot Essay
“My paintings aren’t about art issues. They’re about a feeling that comes to me from the outside, from landscape… The painting is just a surface to be covered. Paintings aren’t about the person who makes them, either. My paintings have to do with feelings.” – Joan Mitchell (J. Mitchell quoted in M. Tucker, Joan Mitchell, exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1974, p. 6).
The present lot is an eloquent expression of bold brushstrokes and color that seamlessly falls into the pictorial lexicon of Mitchell’s wider body of work. The inspiration for this piece, like many of Mitchell’s works, is rooted in the landscapes that surrounded the artist during her time living between France and New York in the mid-1950s. Mitchell’s work is inherently referential, encapsulating the moments of her life that left the most lasting impressions. The present lot is seemingly reminiscent of a water-side scene with its palette of blue and green hues. While simplified in its pictorial expression, the evocative nature of the brushstrokes capture a sense of time and place. For example. the artist painted only a few blue marks along the upper edge of the painting to situate a sky within the context of the rest of the work’s depictions of water and flora. The square-like forms on the left and right edges of the canvas encourage a structure to the scenery and provide a distinction between the perception of earth and water. These gestures are swift but critical to our overall appreciations of the work as a landscape scene.
An undeniably beautiful expression of the artist’s dexterity in color and form, Mitchell’s Untitled captures the duality in feeling and appearance of memory.
The present lot is an eloquent expression of bold brushstrokes and color that seamlessly falls into the pictorial lexicon of Mitchell’s wider body of work. The inspiration for this piece, like many of Mitchell’s works, is rooted in the landscapes that surrounded the artist during her time living between France and New York in the mid-1950s. Mitchell’s work is inherently referential, encapsulating the moments of her life that left the most lasting impressions. The present lot is seemingly reminiscent of a water-side scene with its palette of blue and green hues. While simplified in its pictorial expression, the evocative nature of the brushstrokes capture a sense of time and place. For example. the artist painted only a few blue marks along the upper edge of the painting to situate a sky within the context of the rest of the work’s depictions of water and flora. The square-like forms on the left and right edges of the canvas encourage a structure to the scenery and provide a distinction between the perception of earth and water. These gestures are swift but critical to our overall appreciations of the work as a landscape scene.
An undeniably beautiful expression of the artist’s dexterity in color and form, Mitchell’s Untitled captures the duality in feeling and appearance of memory.