Joan Mitchell Born February 12, 1925 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Untitled, 1992. Oil on canvas (diptych), 102 3/8 x 157 1/2 inches (260 x 400.1 cm). Collection of the Joan Mitchell Foundation, New York. © Estate of Joan Mitchell. [Online] Available from: https://www.carredartistes.com/en/blog/joan-mitchell-monumental-painter-n168 [Accessed 19/011/18]
Colours and expression which Mitchell represented on the canvas totally fascinate me. Strokes are vivid and bright, a composition is sharp – there is no need to “open” whole canvas for an artist, she uses areas only which are necessary. Her way of expression is extremely close to me. Energetic, alive, a bit aggressive. I truly love her works. The only concern which I would change a bit is an unmixed colour from the pallet. I have a feeling that it is a norm for the American school not to mix the oil but apply pure colour straight on the work.
The key factor of Mitchell's works I think was her character: “abrasive personality has been a key factor in interpretations of her painting, which critics often read as expressions of rage and violence.” (The art story, online).
Yves, 1991. Oil on canvas, 110 1/4 x 78 3/4 inches (280 x 200 cm). Private collection. © Estate of Joan Mitchell. [Online] Available from: http://joanmitchellfoundation.org/work/artwork/cat/paintings [Accessed 19/011/18]
Artist’s works on paper have the same energy and freedom of brush strokes. As size is small but the composition, colour combination and texture remain as it would be a big scale work. This I find especially important for monumental work. Monumental I mean not in terms of size but in terms of power which comes from the work and the idea behind.
Inspired by her works and art all my blood flash inside of me. I found a woman who did what she felt was right! So do I trying to work overall comments of my relatives and friends who try to convince me that the figurative and “understandable paintings” are the only right art. I’m more and more convinced: First – inside we know what is right, here I mean the intuition or soul would lead a person to the right way; Second – art should as abstract as possible in order to ignorant people use their inner instincts to read and appreciate art rather than eyes and brain which tell them a narrative story.
I reworked my old work (133x101 cm., plywood). At that time I haven't seen that this work lack “main story” and there was no a plot disclosure. In new work colours are merged in large coloured stains. This gives the work an integrity. Different shapes of stripes make the work interesting for analysis. Several techniques of line making, such as – drawing, painting, nailing and fixing a thread makes you think about the cause of the line and its value on a flat surface. Since in the combination of different techniques, there is still a single nature of the line. I used black varnish as a background, oil pastel and oil as main work tools, plus I integrated just recently opened method of nailing and screwing.
Being under the impression of the Yuval Noah Harari theories of the upcoming future I decided to focus on the difference between the artificial intelligence and human soul. This subject was always with me but probably the unifying idea was missing. I didn’t like the social networks and “surfing” effect (from surfing the internet) of our knowledge. In other words, we are not studying subject detailed and deep anymore but we are surfing the internet for the fast information and jumping around the thousands of subjects. And questions of mortality, respect, love, believe, education, self-fulfilment, a cup of tea with your friends without a mobile phone, paper book - seems to be not so important for current society. Rather priorities are to check last news on Instagram about unknown people and made a senseless statement in Tweeter.
First I criticized this behaviour via small artworks but criticism in art is good when it is not obvious or when artist has a good sense of humour but in my case it was bad and I didn’t feel right address something to people in an “I telling you!” way... better to show how things should be. For instance, coming back to this work – cultivating beauty of colour and joyful atmosphere is essential in digital era.
Composition structure is about handwriting on the backboard, like mathematical formulas – when thought is going and the borders only in our creativity and imagination... thread lines are in a shape of '9' which originally represent a shape of the galaxy. Collage is a photo of me with a gesture of uncertain search and brush strokes are formed as digital pixels... I still use double light as daylight and room lamp give the viewer only two types of an impression but with a black light, I provide a tool for more experience.
Bibliography and references
The art story, Mitchell Joan [Online] Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-mitchell-joan-life-and-legacy.htm[Accessed 19/11/18]
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