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Lot Essay
Untitled, executed in 1974, offers us a compelling reminder of why Joan Mitchell remains one of the most celebrated figures of Abstract Expressionism. Her unique and brilliant color sensibility, the dynamism and vibrancy of her paintings makes them irresistibly compelling. In this painting, Mitchell demonstrates her ability to convey the emotional force achieved by her monumental canvases on a decidedly more intimate scale. While she was often reticent to elaborate on her creative process, often only referring vaguely to “feelings” and “nature” as her predominant inspirations, she was also deeply cultured and erudite artist, and exceedingly well versed in art history. It should come as no surprise that for Mitchell to so radically defy the accepted rules of traditional painting as she did, that it was necessary for her to first comprehend them perfectly.
Utilizing the shared visual lexicon familiar to art initiates, Mitchell invites the viewer on a Proustian immersion in the annals of modern art history. Her mélange of opaque floral tones- heirloom roses and wisteria- might have been conjured from Monet’s brush, still wet with pigment, at the ponds of Giverny. The distinctive hue she has selected for the central rectangular block—luminous and velvety—inescapably channels the our associations to the eponymous pantone hue that Yves Kline employed for his monochromes. The proportions and spatial relationship of the two rectangular colorfields evoke the abstract compositions of Mark Rothko; even Robert Ryman makes a quick turn, in the embroiled facture of albino pigment in the bottom right quadrant of her painting.
Unearthing these historical registers represents just one of the many delights in this work. Mitchell, however, would more likely prefer that we jettison such cerebral speculations and enjoy the painting on its own terms as a beautiful object that can be understood and appreciated equally, by an art historian and a child. Approaching the painting from a purely aesthetic standpoint, one discovers endless interplays of form and color whose relationships oscillate between the harmonious, the discordant and the surprising but unfailingly captivating.
The electric blue of the central mass glowing with the otherworldly beauty of the phosphorescence glinting on dark Caribbean waters at night, beckons the viewer into the composition with hypnotic force. Standing in close proximity to the painting, offers an experience akin to exploring coastal tidepools, in which one discovers that a seemingly inert pool of water, in actuality, contains an abundance of life—as what initially identified as stone announces itself to be a hermit crab as it scurries across the sandy bottom and the tangled scatter of sea kelp eventually discloses that it is a refuge for a school of minnows. These delightful revelations are not the superficial experience of Untitled but present themselves only through sustained and intimate observation tendering rewards which disclose that the composition—introduced as two blue geometric forms set against a background of assorted off-white hues—actually contains an immensity of chromatic subtleties and textures. Within this blue expanse, one identifies agglomerations of aubergine impasto surface, like a manna rays rising from obscure depth, patches of red coral, and agitated spatters of white paint that bring to mind ocean spray and crashing waves, bringing to mind the seascapes of Winslow Homer. As Proust managed in literature, Mitchell allows for each speck of pigment to function as the emotion-stirring madeleine, awakening memories, feelings, and associations that depending on the viewer may have no connection with art history or the ocean. Whatever they happen to be, regarding a work of such spiritual power, they will almost unquestionably move the viewer in surprising and profound ways.
Utilizing the shared visual lexicon familiar to art initiates, Mitchell invites the viewer on a Proustian immersion in the annals of modern art history. Her mélange of opaque floral tones- heirloom roses and wisteria- might have been conjured from Monet’s brush, still wet with pigment, at the ponds of Giverny. The distinctive hue she has selected for the central rectangular block—luminous and velvety—inescapably channels the our associations to the eponymous pantone hue that Yves Kline employed for his monochromes. The proportions and spatial relationship of the two rectangular colorfields evoke the abstract compositions of Mark Rothko; even Robert Ryman makes a quick turn, in the embroiled facture of albino pigment in the bottom right quadrant of her painting.
Unearthing these historical registers represents just one of the many delights in this work. Mitchell, however, would more likely prefer that we jettison such cerebral speculations and enjoy the painting on its own terms as a beautiful object that can be understood and appreciated equally, by an art historian and a child. Approaching the painting from a purely aesthetic standpoint, one discovers endless interplays of form and color whose relationships oscillate between the harmonious, the discordant and the surprising but unfailingly captivating.
The electric blue of the central mass glowing with the otherworldly beauty of the phosphorescence glinting on dark Caribbean waters at night, beckons the viewer into the composition with hypnotic force. Standing in close proximity to the painting, offers an experience akin to exploring coastal tidepools, in which one discovers that a seemingly inert pool of water, in actuality, contains an abundance of life—as what initially identified as stone announces itself to be a hermit crab as it scurries across the sandy bottom and the tangled scatter of sea kelp eventually discloses that it is a refuge for a school of minnows. These delightful revelations are not the superficial experience of Untitled but present themselves only through sustained and intimate observation tendering rewards which disclose that the composition—introduced as two blue geometric forms set against a background of assorted off-white hues—actually contains an immensity of chromatic subtleties and textures. Within this blue expanse, one identifies agglomerations of aubergine impasto surface, like a manna rays rising from obscure depth, patches of red coral, and agitated spatters of white paint that bring to mind ocean spray and crashing waves, bringing to mind the seascapes of Winslow Homer. As Proust managed in literature, Mitchell allows for each speck of pigment to function as the emotion-stirring madeleine, awakening memories, feelings, and associations that depending on the viewer may have no connection with art history or the ocean. Whatever they happen to be, regarding a work of such spiritual power, they will almost unquestionably move the viewer in surprising and profound ways.