Joan Mitchell (1925-1992) called herself the “the last abstract-expressionist,” and I wouldn’t argue the point.
In Café (1956, 47” by 49 ½”, oil on canvas), elements of color, paint textures, movement and visual weight are full of life and the hand of the painter. During an era when American painting seemed to rule the art world, Mitchell more than held her own alongside painters such as Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) and Franz Kline (1910-1962).
Mitchell also held a respect for the classical ideas about space, poetry, landscape and the craft of painting. She spent countless hours with the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1947.
She received early recognition, and this painting came from a very strong period of work in a career that went from strength to strength until the end.
Perhaps Mitchell can best describe her aims in this quote:
“My paintings are titled after they are finished. I paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me – and remembered feelings of them, which of course become transformed. I could certainly never mirror nature. I would more like to paint what it leaves with me.”
This piece is on display at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, just southwest of Cleveland.
Nationally renowned local artist Michael McEwan teaches painting and drawing classes at his Clintonville area studio.
Credit
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, Gift of her family in memory of Chloe Hamilton Young.
