Joan Mitchell Retrospective at SFMOMA Recontextualizes Her Abstract Expressionism

SFMOMA presents a major Joan Mitchell retrospective, co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art and later traveling to Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. The exhibition occupies the entire fifth floor with about 80 works spanning from the 1940s to the 1990s. Curator Sarah Roberts aims to move Mitchell beyond the confines of Abstract Expressionism. The chronological layout follows her geographic trajectory from Chicago and New York to Paris and Vétheuil, with thematic sections on poetry and music. The show includes photographs, notebooks, videos, and ephemera. Mitchell's gestural abstraction is rooted in nature and landscape, filtered through memory and feeling. Her work combines postwar American energy with European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist traditions, notably engaging with van Gogh and Cézanne. The catalog includes an essay by Jenni Quilter comparing Mitchell's articulation to written pages. The exhibition runs until January 17, 2022.