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Lot Essay
Painted in 1959, the year Joan Mitchell permanently relocated from Manhattan to Paris, Untitled lyrically combines the spontaneity of New York Abstract Expressionism with the rich color planes found in French Post-Impressionist painting. The defining features of Mitchell’s greatest works—animated brushstrokes, lush color, and a taut balance of figure and ground—came to maturity during the 1950s, and with its French modernist influences and an Abstract Expressionist command of gesture, Untitled from 1959 presents Joan Mitchell’s singular style in its fully realized form.
With feverish mark-making that pushes and tugs sheaves of textured red and blue, a vortex of energy erupts from the center of Untitled. A white ground pierces the high-keyed palette in staccatos infusing flashes of buoyant light. Calligraphic ochre ribbons stream downward as raspberry and cobalt bricks float towards the canvas’s edges. The resulting balance between intensity and grace in Untitled showcases Mitchell’s personal and persuasive form of painterly expression which crystalized during this key decade of her career. “As the 1950s waned,” writes Patricia Albers, “Joan’s paintings swung between…a dance of reds, greens, yellows, blues, and blacks, indebted to [Jackson] Pollock, on one hand, and, on the other, vigorous, fleshy fists of paint: blue blacks, greens, mustard yellows, and opaque whites” (P. Albers, Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, New York, 2011, p. 281).
The energy generated by the aesthetic contrasts in Untitled embody the emotion inherent in the artist’s best work which came to define her career and set her apart from fellow Abstract Expressionist contemporaries. This canvas is infused with ripe vibrancy emanating from its contradictions. Mitchell’s ability to harness the potent tension of alternately dancing and dense layers of paint, muscular and delicate brushstrokes, and effusive freedom within an organized structure is impressively developed by the time she executed Untitled. “Along with Mitchell’s increasing success in the late 1950s came an ever greater vigor and assurance in her work,” states Judith Bernstock. “Energy radiates from the indefatigable painter to the canvas activated by intense colors and powerful brushstrokes almost to the point of chaos but ultimately resolved in a balanced order” (J. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, New York, 1988, pp. 34-35)
Untitled was executed during the significant year when Mitchell turned away from downtown New York and looked towards Paris, settling into a small studio on rue Frémicourt where she would go on to paint for the next 9 years before retreating to the French countryside. Although firmly tied to and admired by contemporary Abstract Expressionists such as Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, Mitchell was also intensely drawn to past masters of French Post-Impressionism like Cézanne. The artist’s 1959 move to France, according to Mark Rosenthal, “suggests an aesthetic choice whereby she submerged American artistic developments within a profound embrace of French Impressionism…and Modernist French art, from Édouard Manet to Henri Matisse” (M. Rosenthal, Joan Mitchell: Drawing into Painting, 2017, n.p.)
Mitchell’s step towards French Modernism and away from the direct aims of the New York School ushered in a period of unrivalled creativity and artistic exploration during which the present work was created. Distance from New York and proximity to French masterworks offered Mitchell a newfound artistic freedom according to Judith Bernstock, “Having the courage to follow her natural inclinations and maintain her independent stance, Mitchell would eventually emerge from her separation from the New York scene as one of the strongest, most independent painters in the world” (J. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, 1988, p. 57).
The unconcealed power of Mitchell’s art has come to be defined by a profound celebration of color as well as gesture deployed with pointed rhythm which sets paint into a wild state of animation. Untitled from 1959 stands as an exquisite example of her most dramatic and admired work. The result, says Deborah Soloman, is that Mitchell’s “paintings belong to the lyrical tradition in art. They breathe light and air, and their palette is a sunny, upbeat one. They depict a mythic world of ripeness and bloom, and hark back to French painting of the last century, before the advent of modern doubt” (D. Soloman, In Monet's Light, New York Times, 24 November 1991).
With feverish mark-making that pushes and tugs sheaves of textured red and blue, a vortex of energy erupts from the center of Untitled. A white ground pierces the high-keyed palette in staccatos infusing flashes of buoyant light. Calligraphic ochre ribbons stream downward as raspberry and cobalt bricks float towards the canvas’s edges. The resulting balance between intensity and grace in Untitled showcases Mitchell’s personal and persuasive form of painterly expression which crystalized during this key decade of her career. “As the 1950s waned,” writes Patricia Albers, “Joan’s paintings swung between…a dance of reds, greens, yellows, blues, and blacks, indebted to [Jackson] Pollock, on one hand, and, on the other, vigorous, fleshy fists of paint: blue blacks, greens, mustard yellows, and opaque whites” (P. Albers, Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, New York, 2011, p. 281).
The energy generated by the aesthetic contrasts in Untitled embody the emotion inherent in the artist’s best work which came to define her career and set her apart from fellow Abstract Expressionist contemporaries. This canvas is infused with ripe vibrancy emanating from its contradictions. Mitchell’s ability to harness the potent tension of alternately dancing and dense layers of paint, muscular and delicate brushstrokes, and effusive freedom within an organized structure is impressively developed by the time she executed Untitled. “Along with Mitchell’s increasing success in the late 1950s came an ever greater vigor and assurance in her work,” states Judith Bernstock. “Energy radiates from the indefatigable painter to the canvas activated by intense colors and powerful brushstrokes almost to the point of chaos but ultimately resolved in a balanced order” (J. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, New York, 1988, pp. 34-35)
Untitled was executed during the significant year when Mitchell turned away from downtown New York and looked towards Paris, settling into a small studio on rue Frémicourt where she would go on to paint for the next 9 years before retreating to the French countryside. Although firmly tied to and admired by contemporary Abstract Expressionists such as Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, Mitchell was also intensely drawn to past masters of French Post-Impressionism like Cézanne. The artist’s 1959 move to France, according to Mark Rosenthal, “suggests an aesthetic choice whereby she submerged American artistic developments within a profound embrace of French Impressionism…and Modernist French art, from Édouard Manet to Henri Matisse” (M. Rosenthal, Joan Mitchell: Drawing into Painting, 2017, n.p.)
Mitchell’s step towards French Modernism and away from the direct aims of the New York School ushered in a period of unrivalled creativity and artistic exploration during which the present work was created. Distance from New York and proximity to French masterworks offered Mitchell a newfound artistic freedom according to Judith Bernstock, “Having the courage to follow her natural inclinations and maintain her independent stance, Mitchell would eventually emerge from her separation from the New York scene as one of the strongest, most independent painters in the world” (J. Bernstock, Joan Mitchell, 1988, p. 57).
The unconcealed power of Mitchell’s art has come to be defined by a profound celebration of color as well as gesture deployed with pointed rhythm which sets paint into a wild state of animation. Untitled from 1959 stands as an exquisite example of her most dramatic and admired work. The result, says Deborah Soloman, is that Mitchell’s “paintings belong to the lyrical tradition in art. They breathe light and air, and their palette is a sunny, upbeat one. They depict a mythic world of ripeness and bloom, and hark back to French painting of the last century, before the advent of modern doubt” (D. Soloman, In Monet's Light, New York Times, 24 November 1991).