A leading figure of the Abstract Expressionist movement, Mitchell was born in Chicago in 1925, where she attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She later studied in France, where she was deeply inspired and influenced by the work of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Henri Matisse.
In 1949, Mitchell moved to New York and quickly became part of the downtown avant-garde scene, earning the respect of contemporaries like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline at a time when few women were welcomed into the art world’s inner circles.
Mitchell worked in printmaking, painting, and pastel. Her emotionally charged abstract canvases are recognizable for their bold color palettes and gestural brushwork. Her work drew upon memory and feeling, and she often created compositions inspired by landscapes from her past.
Mitchell returned to France to live permanently in 1959 and settled in Vétheuil in 1967. In 1982, she became the first American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Pictured: Joan Mitchell, Noon (1925-1992)
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