ArtHitParade
ArtHitParade on Twitter
  • Home
    • Contact
  • Calendar
  • Top 10
    • Origin
    • From 600 BCE to CE
    • Years 1 to 1000
    • Years 1000 to 1300
    • 14th Century
    • 15th Century >
      • Years 1400-1429
      • Years 1430-1459
      • Years 1460-1479
      • Years 1480-1499
    • 16th Century >
      • Years 1500-1519
      • Decade 1520-1529
      • Decade 1530-1539
      • Years 1540-1569
      • Years 1570-1599
    • 17th Century >
      • Decade 1600-1609
      • Decade 1610-1619
      • Decade 1620-1629
      • Decade 1630-1639
      • Decade 1640-1649
      • Decade 1650-1659
      • Years 1660-1679
      • Years 1680-1699
    • 18th Century >
      • Decade 1700-1709
      • Decade 1710-1719
      • Decade 1720-1729
      • Decade 1730-1739
      • Decade 1740-1749
      • Decade 1750-1759
      • Decade 1760-1769
      • Decade 1770-1779 >
        • 1776
      • Decade 1780-1789
      • Decade 1790-1799 >
        • 1792
    • 19th Century >
      • Decade 1800-1809
      • Decade 1810-1819
      • Decade 1820-1829
      • Decade 1830-1839
      • Decade 1840-1849
      • Decade 1850-1859
      • Decade 1860-1869
      • Decade 1870-1879
      • Decade 1880-1889 >
        • 1885
        • 1887
        • 1888
        • 1889
      • Decade 1890-1899 >
        • 1890
        • 1892
        • 1895
        • 1896
    • 20th Century >
      • Decade 1900-1909 >
        • 1902
        • 1903
        • 1904
        • 1905
        • 1907
        • 1908
        • 1909
      • Decade 1910-1919 >
        • 1910
        • 1911
        • 1912
        • 1913
        • 1914
        • 1915
        • 1916
        • 1917
        • 1918
        • 1919
      • Decade 1920-1929 >
        • 1920
        • 1921
        • 1923
        • 1924
        • 1925
        • 1926
        • 1927
        • 1928
        • 1929
      • Decade 1930-1939 >
        • 1930
        • 1931
        • 1932
        • 1933
        • 1934
        • 1935
        • 1936
        • 1937
        • 1938
        • 1939
      • Decade 1940-1949 >
        • 1941
        • 1942
        • 1945
        • 1946
        • 1947
        • 1948
        • 1949
      • Decade 1950-1959 >
        • 1950
        • 1951
        • 1952
        • 1953
        • 1954
        • 1955
        • 1956
        • 1957
        • 1958
        • 1959
      • Decade 1960-1969 >
        • 1960
        • 1961
        • 1962
        • 1963
        • 1964
        • 1965
        • 1966
        • 1967
        • 1968
        • 1969
      • Decade 1970-1979 >
        • 1970
        • 1971
        • 1972
        • 1974
        • 1975
        • 1976
        • 1977
        • 1978
        • 1979
      • Decade 1980-1989 >
        • 1980
        • 1981
        • 1982
        • 1983
        • 1984
        • 1985
        • 1986
        • 1987
        • 1988
        • 1989
      • Decade 1990-1999 >
        • 1990
        • 1991
        • 1992
        • 1993
        • 1994
        • 1995
        • 1996
        • 1997
        • 1998
        • 1999
    • 21st Century >
      • Decade 2000-2009 >
        • 2000
        • 2001
        • 2002
        • 2003
        • 2004
        • 2006
        • 2007
        • 2008
      • Decade 2010-2019 >
        • 2017
      • 2020 to now >
        • 2021
  • Current Art
  • Renaissance
  • Painting
    • Ancient Painting >
      • Rembrandt
      • Oil on Copper
    • 18th Century Painting
  • Ancient Drawing
  • Art on Paper
  • Sculpture
    • Bust
    • Ancient Sculpture >
      • Roman Sculpture
    • Italian Sculpture
    • French Sculpture
    • Sculpture by Painters
  • Women Artists
    • Ancient Art by Women
    • Current Art by Women
    • O'Keeffe
    • Martin
    • Mitchell
    • Yayoi Kusama
  • Furniture
    • Chairs and Seats
    • Colonial Furniture
    • Ancient French Furniture
    • 18th Century Furniture
    • Modern Furniture >
      • Art Deco
    • Modern Tables
  • Prints
    • Ancient Prints
    • Modern Prints
  • Photo
    • Old Photos >
      • Travel Photos
      • Early French Photo
    • Photos 1900s 1910s
    • Photos 1920s 1930s
    • Photos 1970s 1980s
    • Sherman
    • Gursky
  • The Man
  • The Woman
  • Children
  • Man and Woman
  • Groups
  • Self Portrait
    • Self Portrait 2nd page
  • Nude
  • Abstract Art
    • Abstract Art - 2nd page
  • Landscape
    • Midi
    • Alps
    • Mountains in China
  • Cities
    • Venice
    • Paris
    • Los Angeles
  • Flowers
    • Bouquet
  • Animals
    • Bird
    • Cats
    • Horse
  • Tabletop
  • Early Still Life
  • Music and Dance in Art
    • Music in Old Painting
  • Sport in Art
  • Orientalism
    • Orientalism 1830-1900
  • France
    • Louis XV and XVI
    • Revolution and Empire
    • Louis XVIII to 2nd Empire
    • Ancient French Painting
    • Degas
    • Cézanne
    • Monet >
      • Monet before 1878
      • From Vétheuil to Giverny
      • London and Venice
      • Bassin aux Nymphéas
    • Renoir
    • Gauguin
    • Seurat and Signac
    • Lautrec
    • Matisse
    • Klein
    • Lalanne
    • Post War French Art
  • Italy
    • Ancient Italy >
      • Italian Painting 1280-1700
    • Canaletto
    • Modigliani
    • Fontana
  • Swiss Painting
    • Hodler
  • Giacometti
    • Giacometti 1947-53
    • Femme Debout
  • Bacon
    • Bacon before 1963
    • Bacon 1963-70
    • Later Bacons
    • Head Triptych
  • UK - 2nd page
    • Ancient England
    • George I to III
    • George IV to Victoria
    • British Royals
    • Turner >
      • Watercolor by Turner
    • Freud >
      • Early Freud
    • Hockney
    • Doig
    • Hirst
    • Banksy
  • Germany
    • Ancient Germany >
      • Cranach
    • Richter >
      • Richter before 1983
    • Germany - 2nd page
  • Van Gogh
  • Mondrian
  • De Kooning
  • Old Flanders and Belgium
    • Flemish Art >
      • Rubens
    • Magritte >
      • Early Magritte
    • Belgium 2nd page
  • Picasso
    • Picasso before 1907
    • Picasso 1907-1931
    • Marie-Thérèse
    • Picasso later 1930s
    • Picasso 1940-1960
    • Picasso in Mougins
    • Prints by Picasso
  • Miro
  • Spain 2nd page
    • Ancient Spain
    • Gris
  • Klimt
  • Schiele
  • USA
    • US Independence
    • Development of USA
    • US Civil War
    • Wild West
    • US Painting before 1940
    • Rockwell
    • Calder
    • Rothko >
      • Early Rothko
      • Rothko 1957-70
    • Still
    • Pollock
    • Lichtenstein >
      • Lichtenstein after 1965
    • Warhol >
      • USA by Warhol
      • Celebrities by Warhol >
        • Elvis and Liz
      • Later Warhols
      • Prints by Warhol
    • Twombly
    • Prince
    • Koons
    • Wool
    • Basquiat
    • USA 2nd page
  • Central and South Americas
    • Mexico
  • China
    • Archaic China >
      • Ritual Bronzes
    • Northern Song
    • Southern Song and Yuan
    • Early Ming
    • Later Ming
    • Early Qing
    • Qianlong
    • Modern China >
      • Zhang Daqian >
        • Zhang Daqian before 1965
      • Fu Baoshi
      • Sanyu >
        • Sanyu before 1950
      • Zao Wou-Ki
    • New Chinese Painting
    • Chinese Porcelain >
      • Song to Yuan Porcelain
      • Ming Porcelain
      • Qing Porcelain
    • Chinese Art
    • Chinese Calligraphy
    • Chinese Furniture
    • Imperial Seal
    • Chinese Dragon
    • Jadeite
  • India
    • Gaitonde
    • Modern India
  • Persia
    • Safavid Carpets
  • Yoshitomo Nara
  • Russia
    • Russia 1700-1900
    • Kandinsky
  • Eastern Europe
    • Brancusi
    • Chagall
  • Northern Europe
    • Prints by Munch
  • Egypt
  • Tropical Africa
    • Congo
    • Gabon
    • Mask
  • Tribal Oceania
    • Easter Island
  • Australia
    • Colonial Australia
  • Islam
  • Buddhism
    • Early Buddhist Sculpture
    • Tibet and Nepal
  • Judaica
  • Christianity
    • Madonna and Child
  • Cars
    • Birth of Automobile
    • Cars of the 1910s
    • Cars of the 1920s
    • Cars of the 1930s >
      • Cars 1930-33
      • Cars 1934-35
      • Cars 1936-37
      • Cars 1938-39
    • Post War Cars
    • Cars of the 1950s >
      • Cars 1953-54
      • Cars 1955
      • Cars 1956-57
      • Cars 1958-59
    • Cars of the 1960s >
      • Cars 1960-61
      • Cars 1962-63
      • Cars 1964-65
      • Cars 1966-67
    • Cars 1970s 1980s
    • Supercars
    • Hypercars
    • Ferrari >
      • Early Ferrari
      • From LWB to GTO >
        • California Spider
      • Big Five
    • Alfa Romeo
    • Mercedes-Benz
    • Porsche
    • British Cars >
      • Aston Martin
      • Jaguar
      • McLaren
    • Bugatti
    • French Cars
    • Duesenberg
    • Ford and Shelby
    • Cars in Movies
    • Cars - 2nd page
  • Motorcycles
  • Jewels
    • White Diamond
    • Pink Diamond
    • Blue Diamond
    • African Diamonds
    • Jewels - 2nd page
    • Cartier
  • Silverware
    • Old Silverware
  • Coin
    • Antique Coins
    • Coins 1000-1775
    • Coins 1776-92
    • Coins 1793-1819
    • Coins 1820-49
    • Coins 1850-69
    • Coins 1870-99
    • 20th century Coins
    • US Gold Coins
    • Dollars and Eagles >
      • Silver Dollar
    • British Coins
    • Japanese Coins
    • Chinese Coins
  • Paper Currency
  • Medal and Decoration
  • Time Pieces
    • Clocks >
      • Old Clocks
    • Mechanical Craft ca 1800 >
      • Jaquet-Droz and Followers
    • Modern Watches
    • New Watches >
      • OnlyWatch
    • Patek Philippe >
      • Patek Philippe before 1950
      • World Time
      • Perpetual Calendar
    • Rolex
    • Watches 2nd page
    • English Time Pieces
    • French Time Pieces
  • Glass and Crystal
    • Glass before 1900
    • Tiffany Studios
  • From Terracotta to Porcelain
    • Meissen
  • Textiles
  • Garment
  • Fashion
  • Books
    • Incunabula
    • 16th Century Books
    • 17th Century Books
    • Fine Books 1700-1850
  • Literature
    • Literature in English
    • Literature in French
  • Poems and Lyrics
  • Autograph
  • Manuscript
    • Illuminated Christian Manuscript
  • Religious Texts
  • Political Writing
  • Comic Books
  • Illustration Art
    • Tintin
  • Travel
  • Space
    • Apollo 11
  • Maps
    • Ancient Maps
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Musical Instrument
    • Stradivarius
    • Violin 2nd page
    • Guitar
    • Musical Instrument 2nd page
  • Pop Music
    • The Beatles
  • Poster
  • Sport
    • Sport Equipment
    • Sport Uniform
    • Sport Document
    • Sport Rewards and Medals
    • T206 Wagner
    • Sport Images before 1940
    • Sport Cards 1940-92
    • Topps Mantle
    • Modern Sport Cards
    • Baseball >
      • Baseball Bat
      • Babe Ruth
      • Lou Gehrig
    • Basketball >
      • Jordan
    • Ice Hockey
    • Sport 2nd page
    • Olympic Games
  • Origins of Sports
  • Historical Arms
    • Blade and Armour
    • Colt 1836-62
    • Later Colts
    • Winchester
    • Firearms - 2nd page
  • Toys
  • Doll
  • Games
  • Stamps
    • World Stamps
    • US Stamps
    • Inverted Jenny
  • Inventions
  • Optical Instrument
  • Sciences
    • Ancient Science
    • Sciences 1600-1800
    • Sciences from 1800
    • Astronomy
    • Physics
    • Medicine
  • Dinosaur
  • Computing
  • Nobel Medals
  • Whisky
    • Whisky 2nd page
  • Wine
  • Plus
    • Plus 17C
    • Plus 1880s
    • Plus 1910s
    • Plus Basquiat
    • Plus Tribal

Joan MITCHELL (1925-1992)

Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
​Chronology : 1971  1989  1992

1953
​2020 SOLD for $ 11.3M by Phillips

In May and June 1951, the Ninth Street Exhibition was a landmark in Manhattan artistic life. Managed by Leo Castelli with the support of Franz Kline, it brings together the works of 74 artists. Alongside Hans Hofmann, Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, the youngest already form the second generation of abstract expressionism.

This exhibition reveals the 26-year-old Joan Mitchell. Arrived from Chicago in the previous year, she had soon entered the artistic circles of New York. In this first phase, energy is dominant over color. Her surfaces are dotted with small abstract figures that provide anchor points and rhythm, quite similar to de Kooning's compositions at that time, inspired by Mondrian's earliest abstractions, and anticipating Twombly and Ryman.

Joan needs to be alone in her studio to transfer her feelings onto the canvas. She has a very good fitness and is not afraid to work on large formats. Her art expresses her interpretation of her environment without recourse to figuration, modernizing Cézanne's precept that nature cannot be copied.

On December 7, 2020, Phillips sold for $ 11.3M an oil on canvas 205 x 176 cm made by Joan Mitchell circa 1953, lot 24. This painting expresses her vision of Manhattan in a style that was already premonitory of the major phases of her career.

In 1955 and 1956 Joan spends the summer in France. There she discovers that the bright colors of the countryside will be the best source for her inspiration, with limitless variations. Later in Paris, she will express a centrifugal violence, before her great come back to nature in Vétheuil in 1968.

​1960 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock
​2018 SOLD for $ 14M by Christie's

Joan Mitchell moved permanently to Paris in 1959, the year when she also began her affair with Riopelle. Her studio in rue Frémicourt is far from intellectual communities, perhaps to better preserve the authenticity and originality of her abstract creativity inspired by the colors of nature.

Her style changes after she arrives in Paris. It brings her solution to the great ambition of the abstract expressionists to offer the visitor an infinite vision without frame : it gathers a multicolored centrifugal energy in the center of very large canvases whose edges are only reached by apparent splashes.

From her training and beginnings in the United States, she had learned the lesson of Jackson Pollock, with significant differences for the aesthetic effect of the art. Her pure colors are bright. Concentrated in the middle of the canvas, they provide the illusion of an explosion with many drips. Less spontaneous than Pollock, Mitchell reworked her paintings until reaching the desired balance between colors.


On November 13, 2018, Christie's sold for $ 14M a 296 x 200 cm oil on canvas painted in 1960, lot 14 B.
​

Joan gave titles to the works which she considered the most evocative. The painting that comes on sale is named 12 Hawks at 3 O'Clock. The title in English cannot be linked to some Parisian surrealist poetry. The work also has no particularity at that time position on a clock dial.

In her attention to nature, Joan included the birds. 12 hawks at 3:00 is certainly referring to reserves for the protection of raptors in which birdwatchers recorded the flight of birds with that level of detail.

Joan had always stated a great admiration for Le Champ de Blé aux Corbeaux, considered as the ultimate and premonitory work by Vincent van Gogh. In the final phase of her life, she will paint a colorful composition inspired by this artwork, titled No Birds in a poignant effort to force optimism.

An oil painting of large size, 243 x 200 cm, made circa 1960 in her early Parisian life, was sold for
 $ 9.3M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2011. 

1960
​2014 SOLD for $ 12M by Christie's

An oil on canvas 250 x 204 cm painted in 1960 by Joan Mitchell was sold for $ 12M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 13, 2014, lot 32.

​This Untitled is an early example of the signature multicolored style of her stay in Paris with a centrifugal energy made of vibrant stains and ribbons that vanes into a thin translucent halo in the outer edges of the picture.

The highly gestural execution required a full involvement of her body including raising on her tiptoes to reach the upper border of the canvas, up to the completion of her pre-conceived work for the desired effect from the distance.

1961-1962 Noël
2020 SOLD for $ 11M by Phillips

Joan Mitchell is passionate about the colors of landscapes, and the treatment of color by the great masters such as Turner, Monet and Van Gogh. Like Pollock, she expresses her feeling for nature through abstraction. This involvement by a woman in abstract expressionism surprised art critics : they referred to her as Miss Mitchell.

Joan is appealed by European art and by the landscapes of France where she makes frequent stays before setting up her workshop in Paris in 1959, in a remote district to avoid unwanted influences on her creativity.

However times are difficult for Joan, very affected by the poor health of her parents. She supersedes the impressions of nature by an abstraction of great violence. She will remember it later as a period of great anger.

In fact her anger was under control. The artworks, often very large, remain the object of a meticulous preparation. The gestures that create the illusion of an explosion do not extend beyond the preliminary sketch. Unlike other abstract painters, she uses all the techniques to obtain the desired effect on the canvas : wash, impasto, throwing, fine brush strokes, and probably also the fingers. Green remains her favorite color.

During this Parisian period, the titles of the works are defined afterwards, only when necessary and most often without a real meaning. Some confirm the artist's taste for poetry. Noël, 205 x 200 cm painted in 1961 or 1962, was sold for $ 11M by Phillips on July 2, 2020, lot 5.

Garden Party, 165 x 130 cm painted in 1961-1962, was sold for $ 7.9M by 
Sotheby's on June 29, 2020, lot 7.

1966-1967 Untitled
2022 SOLD for HK$ 83M by Christie's

In 1966-1967 Joan Mitchell was looking for a home far away from the city. She once again daydreamed of the fertile colors of nature.

A monumental Untitled oil on canvas 280 x 200 cm painted during that period was sold for HK $ 83M by Christie's on November 30, 2022, 
lot 41.
​
The abstract image looks like a lush bouquet of colorful flowers and leaves in a dense close up that reminds the irises by van Gogh.

1969 Blueberry
2018 SOLD for $ 16.6M by Christie's

New York City did not suit the creativity of Jackson Pollock. It is the same for Joan Mitchell in Paris where she set up her studio in 1959. Yet she develops an original style based on the centrifugal explosion of bright colors on a white background, which ensures her fame.

She reacts in 1964. Her art is too violent. By exploiting her own anger, she forgets her main theme which is the expression of the colors of nature. The title, sometimes topographical, barely guides the viewer to understand what she wanted to do.

She finds the solution in 1968 by settling in Vétheuil, the village surrounded by gardens where Monet had lived before Giverny. Her workshop in an old farm building enables to increase the width of the paintings while maintaining the towering height that had been her specialty in Paris.

Blueberry, oil on canvas 200 x 150 cm painted in 1969, already announces this transition from anger to contentment, with a physical energy that operates a variety of techniques from knife impasto to multiple thin layers.. It was sold for $ 16.6M by Christie's on May 17, 2018 from a lower estimate of $ 5M, lot 6 B.

Painted in the same year, an Untitled oil on canvas 260 x 160 cm was sold for $ 9M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 20C. A few bright squared leaves flow beside a larger area of brilliant colors that simulates a bloom, The overall composition is in the same ethereal style as the Sunflower series of 1969, in the same towering format. The background is enhanced by passages of pale yellow ochre and white hues.

1971 Plowed Field
​2019 SOLD for $ 13.3M by Christie's

Plowed Field, painted by Joan Mitchell in 1971, is a culmination of her phase of meditative tranquility in Vétheuil with a great diversity of warm colors in the blocks that simulate the imaginary fields.

The surface is completely filled. The endless ground is composed of blocks as if seen from the air, with shimmering colors that express the various crops. She does not want to copy a landscape but to express her feeling. Paradoxically, she finds in Vétheuil the memory of the unlimited cornfields of her childhood between Saskatchewan and the Great Lakes.

This triptych of oils on canvas of total size 285 x 540 cm was sold for $ 13.3M by 
Christie's on November 13, 2019, lot 25 B.
1971

1983 La Grande Vallée
2020 SOLD for $ 14.5M by Christie's

La Grande Vallée is a series of paintings made by Joan Mitchell in 1983 and 1984, expressing memories of childhood. But these memories are not those of the artist.

Children love to have a secret place away from adults, where they can personalize their world. Gisèle Barreau spent her childhood in Brittany, near Nantes, where she appropriated a hidden valley, used to graze cows in the middle of untouched woods, with abandoned barns and wild flowers.

Gisèle is a musician. She becomes Joan's assistant in Vétheuil for the work of everyday life.

Gisèle shared her secret with her cousin Jean-Philippe. The young man died in 1982 without having seen his valley again. In the same week, Joan lost her sister Sally Perry.

Since the 1950s Joan has been inspired by the colors of the French countryside. To face the double mourning and ward off death, she imagines with all the vibrant colors of happiness this Grande Vallée that she will never view.

The series consists of a single triptych, 5 diptychs and 15 single canvases. This set was built with a diversity of composition comparable to the Grandes Décorations by Monet. Monet's presence in Vétheuil from 1878 to 1881 certainly influenced Joan's installation in the same village in 1968. Joan expresses the confrontation of bright colors in abstract landscapes that are not based on any topographic reality, but the tendency to the abstraction in Monet's latest works could not leave her indifferent.

La Grande Vallée VII, diptych 260 x 260 cm overall painted in 1983, was sold for $ 14.5M from a lower estimate of $ 10M  by Christie's on July 10, 2020, lot 61.

The opus XIV, which is the only triptych, is at the Centre Pompidou. Dominated by the colors of the flowers, the opus XIII, 280 x 200 cm, was sold for € 3.6M  by Sotheby's on December 3, 2013. The opus XI predominantly blue, 200 x 180 cm, was sold for £ 2.6M  by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008.

1989 Untitled
2022 SOLD for $ 14M by Christie's

Joan Mitchell once stated : "All I wanted to do was paint". She never gave up.

She was first diagnosed with a cancer in 1984, aged 59. Her health further deteriorated with hip dysplasia and disabling arthritis.

Clearly feeling that her life and art would come to an end, she did not stop working, increasing her quest for the processing of colors by the greatest masters of the past : van Gogh, Monet, Kandinsky, Matisse. She felt like a dying sunflower. She said : "I become the sunflower, the lake, the tree. I no longer exist".

She restarted her former style of color bursts on white background, but without the desperate centrifugal explosion of her Paris period.

​An Untitled diptych, oil on canvas 195 x 260 cm overall painted in 1989, was sold for $ 14M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 46.

The multi-colored abstract floating bouquet is well centered on the canvas without reaching the edges. Paint drippings provide some gravitation to the image.
1989

1992 Untitled
2021 SOLD for $ 11.9M by Phillips

On the final years of the career of Joan Mitchell, her compositions mingling colored streaks and ribbons could remind a tree, symbol of vitality. Many Untitled works are certainly tributes by the trees to late friends but she did not disclose such an attribution. Her oil colors now inspired by pastel became brighter than ever.

1992 was the last year of her life. Resuming the large formats, she prepared a solo exhibition at the Galerie Jean Fournier in Paris.

An Untitled oil on canvas 280 x 200 cm painted in 1992 was sold for $ 11.9M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 8. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house. Another Untitled in same format and year, also exhibited at Jean Fournier, was sold for € 4.7M by Christie's on October 20, 2022, lot 14.
1992
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.