A New Appreciation for Artist Joan Mitchell

Joan Mitchell (1925-1992) was a star of the Abstract Expressionist movement, a peer of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. But she was also an athlete—a champion figure skater—and that athleticism translated to her art.

“She meant for her paintings to be physical and emotional, rather than intellectual, and because of that they’re more accessible than much abstraction,” says Katy Siegel, co-curator of a Mitchell retrospective opening this month at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The show, which brings together about 75 paintings and drawings by the Chicago-born artist, includes wall-size canvases that required Mitchell to climb up ladders. “She made these paintings with the entire span and reach of her body, and some of them are quite enormous,” Siegel says. “You feel like you’re inside the painting.” That sensation was also central to Mitchell’s own experience of her art. “Painting is a way of forgetting oneself,” she said in 1986. “I call that state ‘no-hands.’ I am in it. I’m not there anymore.” 

Amy Crawford | | READ MORE

Amy Crawford is a Michigan-based freelance journalist writing about cities, science, the environment, art and education. A longtime Smithsonian contributor, her work also appears in CityLab and the Boston Globe.