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Displaying items by tag: Joan Mitchell

The Joan Mitchell Center just underwent a big renovation of its Treme campus, including upgrades to its historic buildings by Jonathan Tate and a modern new 8,000-square-foot studio building by Lee Ledbetter.

The big addition to the campus is the Ledbetter-designed studio space, a striking modern structure with spare, high-ceilinged studios. They are working to attain LEED certified building, which was built with rainwater management in mind.

 

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Late last year the $15 million or £9.5 million estimate for Georgia O'Keeffe's work at auction was shattered after a rather intense bidding war between two unknown rivals. "Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1," a 1932 painting of a simple white flower, was finally bought after the flurry by an unnamed buyer with a telephone bid at Sotheby’s auction house.

The floral painting by the late US artist has sold for $44.4 million or £28.8 million at auction; this set a record for an artwork by a female artist. The auction of the work smashed the previous record of $11.9 million or £7.5 million for an untitled work by Joan Mitchell, which was set in set in May. The work was put up for sale by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in New Mexico, after the need arose to raise proceeds for its acquisitions fund.

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An installation of several paintings by Hans Hofmann, one of the most influential painters of the 20th century, is now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Drawn from the Museum’s substantial holdings of the artist’s work, "Hans Hofmann: Selected Paintings" commemorates the recent publication of the Hans Hofmann Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, a comprehensive three-volume compendium.

Known as one of the abstract painters of the New York School, Hofmann (American, 1880-1966) shaped three generations of artists, first in Europe and later in the United States. The list of his illustrious students includes Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, Larry Rivers, Allan Kaprow, and Marisol (whose large installation "Self-Portrait Looking at The Last Supper" is on view at the Met through April 5, 2015 in Gallery 909).

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Last month, Colby College Museum of Art put on a view a 1968 painting by Joan Mitchell that museum director Sharon Corwin believes is the best example of abstract expressionism in Maine. Next month, the Portland Museum of Art will unveil an 8-foot-tall steel “Seven” sculpture by Robert Indiana, once rejected by the Prince of Monaco, in the pedestrian plaza out front.

The two works share few similarities, but they represent the latest high-profile acquisitions by two leading museums in Maine and highlight the challenges facing curators and museum directors as they shape collections across the state.

In both instances, the museums acquired the art because benefactors took personal interest in bringing it to Maine.

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Wednesday, 04 May 2011 04:01

Painter Joan Mitchell Finally Gets Her Due

"Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter: A Life" (Alfred A. Knopf), by Patricia Albers: At age 12, Joan Mitchell decided to be a painter. She had shown a flair for writing and for painting, but her father made her choose between the two, warning against being a dilettante.

He needn't have worried — Joan turned out to be as driven as he was. When Mitchell died in 1992 at age 67, her paintings sold for millions and belonged to major art museums. But her fame came at a terrible price.

A lifelong alcoholic, Mitchell was a nasty drunk, brawling with lovers until she was black and blue. Reckless, promiscuous and self-destructive, she wanted children yet had several abortions because she believed motherhood was incompatible with a career.

Art historian Patricia Albers, who spent eight years on this densely packed, excellent biography, offers a largely sympathetic portrait of Mitchell, uncovering ample evidence of her warmth and generosity and tracing her outrageous behavior to a variety of unresolved psychological issues.

Born in Chicago, Mitchell grew up in a wealthy family. A championship figure skater as a teen, she went on to study at Smith College and the Art Institute of Chicago, where she was a star pupil.

In 1949, she moved to New York with her former husband, Barney Rosset Jr., who later founded the legendary Grove Press, at Joan's suggestion. They arrived just when a group of downtown artists, later called the New York School, was about to set the world on fire. Mitchell fell under the spell of Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, whose bold, large-scale abstractions liberated her from her academic training.

Sometimes called a second-generation abstract expressionist, Mitchell defies such labeling. Although she borrowed their gestures and techniques, her paintings capture remembered landscapes and emotions, not the artist's inner world. Nor did she emulate the random effects of an artist like Jackson Pollock; every brushstroke was intentional.

Although Mitchell never created a movement, she stands out for her striking use of color. Like one of her idols, Wassily Kandinsky, she was a synesthete, perceiving color in other sensory perceptions. People, weather, landscapes, memories — all throbbed with the intensity of the palette of another hero, Vincent van Gogh.

Fiercely competitive from an early age, Mitchell waged a lifelong battle against sexism. Even her father — who badly wanted a John, not a Joan — told her she'd never amount to much because of her gender. Thus her ironic references to herself as "lady painter," a sly put-down she used knowing full well that her art deserved to hang alongside that of her more celebrated male contemporaries.

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