Joan Mitchell,

by Marcia Tucker

. Whitney Museum, 1974, clean copy, slight shelfwear with insert, no markings, Professional booksellers since 1981

Genres: Art

Paperback

First published February 1, 1997

Reviews

[Kerfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike many in similar books, Kertiss; essay about Joan Mitchell puts the artist and her work at the center. Her biography, friends, influences, and world events spiral out from that center, and it gives both coherence and insight to the many plates illustrating the evolution of Mitchell's work over time. And excellent reference in all ways.

[Myles Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

kertess intro'd me to some new mitchell influences and contemporaries and had some good anecdotes about her brilliant mixture of not-giving-a-damn and complete immersion in emotional landscapes (bjork's "hunter" kept playing in my head when a painting wowed me). but dude was too hung up on where her work stood in relation to others, whether she invented something new, which paintings counted as "masterpieces", adjectives like "majesterial" - which doesn't seem at all right for mitchell's practice or attitude and made me suspicious of the selection. a book that focused on her pastels was more what i was looking for - less intrusive, more focused on her idioms.