Joan Mitchell

In speaking of Mitchell, others tell us of her "physical materiality" — how she exudes the visual sentiments of nature- the objectivity of her painting, devoid of anecdote or theater and in her own words "to convey the feeling of the dying sunflower."

Mitchell is one of the second generation of Abstract Expressionist painters, drawing from and expanding upon the visual language of New York artists including her mentor Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock…

Piano mécanique

In speaking of Mitchell, others tell us of her physical materiality – how she exudes the visual sentiments of nature – the objectivity of her painting, devoid of anecdote or theater and in her own words "to convey the feeling of the dying sunflower." Joan Mitchell as an abstract expressionist composes with long curvilinear strokes or broad stains of color, contrasting warm and cool, often on unprimed canvases. Her perceptions enrich her work with a fascinating sense of the unfinished. Joan Mitchell demonstrated in painting just as in life, anything can happen…

Two untitled works in the SF MOMA