{"id":1508563,"date":"2022-06-09T07:19:46","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T11:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1508563"},"modified":"2022-06-09T07:21:00","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T11:21:00","slug":"baltimore-featured-abstract-artist-joan-mitchell-is-not-just-for-feminists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/baltimore-featured-abstract-artist-joan-mitchell-is-not-just-for-feminists\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore-Featured Abstract Artist Joan Mitchell Is Not Just For Feminists"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbaltimore-featured-abstract-artist-joan-mitchell-is-not-just-for-feminists%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1508563&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Last Wednesday was a day for surprises at the Baltimore Museum of Art. \u201cMatisse: The Sinuous Line\u201d proved limited, with only a handful of drawings and a few small pieces of sculpture. In the mood for a full-blown exhibition, I investigated my fallback option, a retrospective upstairs entitled \u201cJoan Mitchell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not to be confused with singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, the artist Joan Mitchell (1925-1992) was a leading figure in the second wave of Abstract Expressionism and a member of the New York School, a group of artists and writers active in the 1950s and \u201960s who drew inspiration from modernism, surrealism, and cubism.<\/p>\n<p>Full disclosure here. I\u2019m not a natural admirer of abstract art. It is only since 2016, when I became a docent at the National Gallery of Art, that have I grown to appreciate Jackson Pollock and fall under the spell of Wassily Kandinsky.<\/p>\n<p>Hung on whispering white walls, Mitchell\u2019s work is absorbing, energetic, inspiring, and about 30 other superlatives I could name \u2014 but you get the point. To attend this show, to stand in front of the artist\u2019s 70 works, exploding in color, intensity, and magnitude, one cannot resist feeling moved.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"526\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/5_Mitchell_Bonjour_Julie_1971.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273745\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/5_Mitchell_Bonjour_Julie_1971.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/5_Mitchell_Bonjour_Julie_1971-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/5_Mitchell_Bonjour_Julie_1971-768x404-1.jpg 768w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Joan Mitchell. Bonjour Julie. 1971..<br \/>Collection of the Art Fund, Inc. at the Birmingham Museum of Art, purchase with funds provided by the Merton Brown Estate and the Thelma Brown Trust. \u00a9 Estate of Joan Mitchell,<br \/>.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Struggle against Sexism<\/h2>\n<p>Before our trip to Baltimore last week, my knowledge of Mitchell was thin. Everything I had heard or read about the painter focused on her stature as a feminist artist. Articles and talks highlighted the challenges and disadvantages of being a female artist, as well as what she had done to advance the feminist agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Also, Mitchell is featured in the popular book \u201cNinth Street Women.\u201d Described as having \u201cescaped a privileged but damaging childhood,\u201d her father is portrayed as relentlessly critical and abusive. The overall impression is of someone who spent her life striving to escape the dominance of men and \u201cmale patriarchy,\u201d and whose paintings reflect a singular struggle against sexism.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of rhetoric steered me away from the artist. Not surprisingly, I was left to conclude that if Mitchell was not actually a feminist artist, then at the very least, feminists had taken possession of her work, leaving little behind for the rest of us to enjoy. \u00a0Thankfully, I was wrong.<\/p>\n<h2>From Chicago to Paris\u00a0and New York City\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Mitchell was born in Chicago. Exposed to culture at an early age, she grew up attending ballet and symphony performances and spending time at art galleries and museums.<\/p>\n<p>Her father was a dermatologist. Her mother was a poet and editor of \u201cPoetry Magazine.\u201d The prestigious journal\u2019s founder, Harriet Monroe, was known to Joan and her sister as \u201cAunt Harriet.\u201d Literary giants such as T.S. Elliot, Thornton Wilder, Robert Frost, and Edna St. Vincent Millay were frequent visitors at the family home.<\/p>\n<p>As an adult, Mitchell was a bit of a nomad. She first moved to New York City and then relocated to France, where she lived for almost half her life. After several years in Paris, seeking serenity and space, she bought an estate in the small village of V\u00e9theuil, about 40 miles northwest of Paris.<\/p>\n<p>A sense of place figured prominently in Mitchell\u2019s work. Memories of views from her windows, including vistas of Lake Michigan, Manhattan skyscrapers, the Brooklyn Bridge, and Paris rooftops inspired the artist. She also had a keen appreciation for nature, \u201cI carry my landscape around with me,\u201d she said in 1957.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"725\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2_Mitchell_To_The_Harbormaster_1957_DO_NOT_CROP-1024x725-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273744\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2_Mitchell_To_The_Harbormaster_1957_DO_NOT_CROP-1024x725-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2_Mitchell_To_The_Harbormaster_1957_DO_NOT_CROP-300x213-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2_Mitchell_To_The_Harbormaster_1957_DO_NOT_CROP-768x544-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2_Mitchell_To_The_Harbormaster_1957_DO_NOT_CROP.jpg 1200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Joan Mitchell. To the Harbormaster. 1957. AKS Art. \u00a9 Estate of Joan Mitchell.<br \/>.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Male Companionship and Inspiration<\/h2>\n<p>Here is the second surprise. Contrary to all I had read and heard, Mitchell\u2019s life and career were punctuated by her relationships with men. Like most women, she regularly sought men out for love, companionship, collaboration, and inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne were her \u201cmost significant touchstones.\u201d Other influences included Matisse, Renoir, and Manet. Her roster of mostly male friends is nothing short of impressive, a veritable \u201cWho\u2019s Who\u201d in the art and literature of the modernist era. Samuel Beckett, playwright and author of \u201cWaiting for Godot,\u201d was a longtime friend and confidante. Other friends were members of the New York School Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning. Collaborators included poets John Ashbery and Frank O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell\u2019s lovers and male friends influenced her work as an artist and painter. By the early 1960s, she was frequently using a palette knife to apply paint, a signature tool of her husband Jean Paul Riopelle. From her friend, painter Sam Francis, she borrowed the technique of layering turpentine when the paint was both wet and dry.<\/p>\n<p>Van Gogh\u2019s work had a huge impact on Mitchell. His sunflowers were a powerful image that she painted frequently, in series and alone, \u201cin dialogue\u201d as she put it, with the deceased Dutch artist. Her painting \u201cNo Rain,\u201d speaks to Van Gogh\u2019s 1889 canvas \u201cRain,\u201d a postcard of which she kept pinned to her studio wall.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/7_Mitchell_No_Rain_1976-1024x720-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273747\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/7_Mitchell_No_Rain_1976-1024x720-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/7_Mitchell_No_Rain_1976-300x211-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/7_Mitchell_No_Rain_1976-768x540-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/7_Mitchell_No_Rain_1976.jpg 1200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Joan Mitchell. No Rain. 1976.<br \/>The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of The Estate of Joan Mitchell, 1994 \u00a9.<br \/>Estate of Joan Mitchell.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Baltimore Exhibition Becomes More Abstract<\/h2>\n<p>The exhibition is arranged chronologically, each room containing paintings completed within the same few years. Mitchell\u2019s work becomes more abstract as one moves forward in time. The first gallery includes some early compositions featuring angular shapes and a chair, while her 1949-50 canvas \u201cFigure and the City\u201d features an actual figure.<\/p>\n<p>Given my fragile appreciation of abstract art, I expected to feel less engaged as the show progressed. But the truth is, the more abstract Mitchell\u2019s work became, the more it moved me. Colorful, agitated lines are explosive and energetic. But Mitchell\u2019s technique was hardly spontaneous. She spent a good deal of time thinking about her compositions, always beginning with a concrete memory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat makes me want to squeeze the paint in the first place, so that the brush is out, is a memory of a feeling.\u201d She once said. \u201cIt might be of a dead dog, it might be of a lake, but once I start painting, I\u2019m painting a picture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sketchbooks, photographs, and letters displayed under glass provide a welcome window into the artist\u2019s preparation and process.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"773\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/11_Mitchell_Sunflowers_1990-91-1024x773-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273749\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/11_Mitchell_Sunflowers_1990-91-1024x773-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/11_Mitchell_Sunflowers_1990-91-300x227-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/11_Mitchell_Sunflowers_1990-91-768x580-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/11_Mitchell_Sunflowers_1990-91.jpg 1200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Joan Mitchell. Sunflowers. 1990-91.<br \/>Collection John Cheim. \u00a9 Estate of Joan Mitchell.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Engaged with Literature<\/h2>\n<p>Another surprise was Mitchell\u2019s constant engagement with literature in her work. She considered her paintings lyrical and collaborated with an impressive number of writers.<\/p>\n<p>A series of small pastels, punctuated by typed lines of poetry, are lovely and unexpected. Consider Daylight (1975), with poem by James Schuyler.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>Daylight:<\/p>\n<p><em>And when I thought,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOur love might end\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The sun<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Went right on shining.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Mitchell\u2019s pastel shares the page with the typed poem: an uneven swath of yellow covering a large portion of the surface, punctuated with staccato blue horizontal swipes beneath. The perfect accompaniment: simple yet intense, like the poem itself.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell\u2019s goal was \u201cto create paintings that were strong and lyrical,\u201d she once told her mother. Here she succeeded.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"579\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2022_Joan_Mitchell_135_o3-1-1024x579-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-273752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2022_Joan_Mitchell_135_o3-1-1024x579-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2022_Joan_Mitchell_135_o3-1-300x170.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2022_Joan_Mitchell_135_o3-1-768x434-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/2022_Joan_Mitchell_135_o3-1.jpg 1200w\" \/><\/p>\n<p><figcaption class=\"col-12 col-md-6 body-xs px-15 pe-md-0 ps-md-30 py-15 m-0 text-center\">Image of the installation courtesy of the Baltimore Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Her canvases draw us in \u2014 I wrote the word \u2018intrigue\u2019 several times in my notes \u2014 allowing the viewer to bring their own impressions and opinions to the experience. \u201cIt looks strong and relaxed, classical and refreshing at the same time; it has both the time and the will to be itself,\u201d Ashbery wrote in \u201cArt News.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell\u2019s work does stand alone, refusing to align with ideology or politics. The danger around the political narrative feminists have assigned her, is that those on one side of the line miss what is on the other, just as I almost did with Joan Mitchell\u2019s inspiring work.<\/p>\n<p>Joan Mitchell at the Baltimore Museum of Art runs through August 14, 2022.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  Beth Herman is an artist, essayist, and school docent at The National Gallery of Art. In addition to The Federalist, her essays have been published in The Wall Street Journal, Legal Times, The Washington Times, and on NPR. When not at her easel or writing desk, Beth can be found out running with her husband of over 35 years, author and historian Arthur Herman. Read more of her essays at <a href=\"https:\/\/releasethebeast.home.blog\/%E2%80%9C\">Release the Beast \u2013 Beth for Beth&#8217;s Sake<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Wednesday was a day for surprises at the Baltimore Museum of Art. \u201cMatisse: The Sinuous Line\u201d proved limited, with only a handful of drawings and a few small pieces<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":710,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1508563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1508563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1508563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1508563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1508563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1508563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}