Untitled, 1961
Because I'm reading Patricia Alber's new book, Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter, that lady is my current spotlight artist.
As you look at Mitchell's painting on the right, keep in mind that this artist was a nationally ranked competitive ice-skater in her youth. It's intriguing to think that the looping lines and cool colors in Untitled and other works were inspired by memories of gliding on the ice, although Mitchell denied the connection.
It's also fascinating to read about the role Mitchell's synesthesia played in her work. This neurological condition, described by Albers as a "sensory cross-wiring in the brain...in which a stimulus to one of the senses triggers perceptions through another sense", turned out to be an invaluable resource for an artist. For Mitchell, every letter of the alphabet was a different color, as was every emotion, every smell, everything.
Joan Mitchell was a complicated woman. She was brought up in a privileged environment, but chose to portray herself as a penniless artist. She resisted being labelled an Abstract Expressionist, even though the man she considered her artistic father, William de Kooning, was a charter member of that movement. Mitchell also resisted friendships with Grace Hartigan and Helen Frankenthaler, the other "lady painters" in her circle, preferring to be thought of as one of the guys. Reading biographies can be a dry experience, but Albers' voice sings throughout this book with a fluidity comparable to Mitchell's calligraphic brushstrokes.
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