Untitled

Widely regarded as one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionism, Joan Mitchell’s canvases exude the lyrical vigor so coveted by the artists and critics pioneering this movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Building on the formalist aesthetic touted by her predecessors, Mitchell burst forth from the angst-ridden canvases of the past and introduced carefully nuanced compositions that favored space and color. Painted at the apex of her New York career, before she fully expatriated to France in 1959, Untitled is a potent and jovial example of the artist’s uncanny ability to marry natural forms, abstract gestures, and urban movement. “Her works epitomize a shift in abstract expressionism from chance, hazard, and the uncontrolled freedom of the unconscious to a new direction with breath, freshness, and light within a highly structured armature…” (P. Schimmel quoted in J. Yau, “Joan Mitchell’s Sixth Sense,” Mitchell Trees, exh. cat., Cheim & Read, New York, 2014, n.p.). By harnessing the visual language of Abstract Expressionism and connecting it to the liveliness of all-enthralling nature, Mitchell evaded the more solitary aspects of the genre and successfully paved the way for future generations of painters interested in universal expression and channeling the energy of our natural surroundings.
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. 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. Throughout her evolution as an abstract painter, Mitchell consistently sought to converge her interests in nature, emotion, and painting. Mitchell's works frequently refer to landscape, however the paintings are not representation of nature seen, but are an expression of sensations and emotions felt. The captured movement of light and color in this painting is a constant characteristic of Mitchell's painted memories of and responses to landscape.