She had her first solo show in 1952 at the New Gallery, NYC, and her acclaim led to many yearly shows and becoming part of the stable of artists at New Gallery. She was asked to join the exclusive “Artist Club” in Greenwich Village which included very few women. Mitchell later participated in the famous “ Ninth Street Show” (1951), and established a reputation as one of the leading younger American Abstract Expressionist painters. Returning to New York City in 1949, Joan immersed herself in the Abstract Expressionist art scene, becoming friends with Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline among others.

And, as she painted, her images became progressively more abstract. Then after a year she moved to Paris where she painted abstract cityscapes in a cubistic style. After graduation in 1947 she moved to New York where she saw works by Arshile Gorky, and Jackson Pollack. Her love of art grew at an early age and later she attended the Art Institute of Chicago where she was greatly influenced by Wassily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne-impressionists, post-impressionists, cubism. When little, her father took her to the Art Institute of Chicago and other museums. Her father was a doctor and her mother a poet, writer, and editor. Mitchell's early success in the 1950s was striking at a time when few women artists were recognized, and she continued to create abstract paintings until her death in 1992. These principles of physical action, combined with careful, precise visual observation of her environment, underscore her life-long approach to painting. An accomplished athlete throughout her childhood, Mitchell had a great deal of experience with discipline, practice, balance, and a relaxed and fluid faculty of control. Indeed, her approach to painting was both physically and mentally rigorous. The arc of her arm can be seen in the brushstrokes in many of her paintings, especially at the top where she was extending her reach. Her paintings were built slowly and carefully she would stand back and look at a blank canvas or painting in progress for long periods of time, decide where each mark should go, then approach the work to place paint quickly and confidently. She worked in solitude, except for the company of her dogs. In order to prepare herself for painting, she might read poetry or listen to music. Joan Mitchell worked primarily at night and rarely if ever painted from life. Her paintings are poetic evocation of nature. She paints with lyrical, calligraphic brush strokes and looping slashes of color-an assertive use of line creating rhythms and movement. Inspired by landscape, nature, and poetry, her intent was not to create a recognizable image, but to convey emotions.

Joan Mitchell is known for the compositional rhythms, bold coloration, and sweeping gestural brushstrokes of her large and often multi-paneled paintings.

Patricia albers joan mitchell