Acquisitions/
1958/
Joan Mitchell/
City Landscape

A member of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, Joan Mitchell was known for painting big, light-filled abstractions, animated by loosely applied skeins of bright color, infused with the energy and excitement of a large metropolis.

In City Landscape, a tangle of pale pink, scarlet, mustard, sienna, and black hues threatens to coagulate or erupt. The title suggests that this ganglion of pigments evokes the nerves or arteries of a city. The sense of spontaneity conveyed in City Landscape belies Mitchell’s methods. Unlike many of her contemporaries, who were dubbed action painters, Mitchell worked slowly and deliberately. “I paint a little,” she said. “Then I sit and look at the painting, sometimes for hours. Eventually, the painting tells me what to do.”