An abstract painting with a mass
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 4:04 am
A two-part abstract painting composed of orange, blue and white crossed strokes.
Joan Mitchell, Weeds, 1976.
© Estate of Joan Mitchell / Photo Ian Lefebvre, Art Gallery of Ontario / Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Rosa Malheur
Much like her fellow Abstract Expressionists Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning and Lee Krasner, Mitchell was forced to confront her status as a woman among a group of men who have often been more acclaimed, though she has certainly been recognized from while alive. Before turning 40, she participated in the Venice Biennale in Italy and Documenta in Kassel, Germany, as well as in several solo exhibitions at the Stable Gallery in New York which received positive reviews. During her stay in job function email database France in the 1950s and 1960s, she rubbed shoulders with personalities such as Shirley Jaffe, Simon Hantaï, Alberto Giacometti and others. Alongside the artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, with whom she had a long and torrid romantic relationship, Mitchell even hosted some of them for dinner.
But during all this time, Mitchell was often forced to struggle with being called a “woman artist.” “Women couldn’t paint and women couldn’t paint and all that stuff,” Mitchell told art historian Linda Nochlin of the postwar art world. When a man at a party once called Mitchell and Kooning “female artists,” Mitchell said, “Elaine, let’s get out of here.
of blue and red strokes in the center.
Joan Mitchell, Rock bottom, 1960-61.
© Estate of Joan Mitchell / Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin
Joan Mitchell, Weeds, 1976.
© Estate of Joan Mitchell / Photo Ian Lefebvre, Art Gallery of Ontario / Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Rosa Malheur
Much like her fellow Abstract Expressionists Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, Elaine de Kooning and Lee Krasner, Mitchell was forced to confront her status as a woman among a group of men who have often been more acclaimed, though she has certainly been recognized from while alive. Before turning 40, she participated in the Venice Biennale in Italy and Documenta in Kassel, Germany, as well as in several solo exhibitions at the Stable Gallery in New York which received positive reviews. During her stay in job function email database France in the 1950s and 1960s, she rubbed shoulders with personalities such as Shirley Jaffe, Simon Hantaï, Alberto Giacometti and others. Alongside the artist Jean-Paul Riopelle, with whom she had a long and torrid romantic relationship, Mitchell even hosted some of them for dinner.
But during all this time, Mitchell was often forced to struggle with being called a “woman artist.” “Women couldn’t paint and women couldn’t paint and all that stuff,” Mitchell told art historian Linda Nochlin of the postwar art world. When a man at a party once called Mitchell and Kooning “female artists,” Mitchell said, “Elaine, let’s get out of here.
of blue and red strokes in the center.
Joan Mitchell, Rock bottom, 1960-61.
© Estate of Joan Mitchell / Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin