Saturday, March 6, 2010

(artist) Joan Mitchell

"Untitled" (1958)


Joan Mitchell waw born and studied in Chicago, then moved and worked in France. She is called a second generation of abstract expressionist, following Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Cy Twombly. Abstract expressionism is the American post world war art movement. It is difficult to define one word, but it is subconcious, automatic creation of work, so it seems like no figure, and hard to understand what exactly the artists draw.

It is said that the beginner (art lover) likes realism art, because it is easy to figure out and evaluate the completion. However, abstract is not welcomed by them, because it is not easy to understand, and even looks like scribbling. Some say "What is that? I think my young boy can do it better than this artist!" The curator of the Kukje Gallery (There was a exhibition :"Drawings- Joan Mitchell" from October 22 to December 31, 2009) told that this kind of reaction is sad for the artists and the curators. For the artists, their style, even if it is just one point or one line, is the result of the artist's entire art life after thousands of trial and errors.

I totally agree with her idea. Frankly speaking I used to be a common audience, who sometimes complained why just painting of the line is so expensive. Since I am getting more knowledge and affection of the art, my point of view has changed.

I think one of the reasons why the artist like Joan Mitchell is loved is because of their frontier spirit. Since the paintings that look like scribbling are too common for us nowadays, because of the Jackson Pollock's action painting or Cy Twombly's graffiti paintings, we don't think it is fresh. However, we have to remember that Pollock's major works were from the 1940s, and Mitchell's major works were started from 1950s. Then we can imagine how shocking and fresh their ideas were! I still don't understand their idea all yet, but if I open my mind, I can find a smiling face, flowers, or trees in her paintings. This is another interest of learning impressionism art for me.

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