Joan Mitchell¡¦Conveying Allusions to Nature

DeKooning and Pollock represent the first generation of Abstract Expressionism.With full cooperation from her estate 15 works spanning from her early 1952 works through to her death are being shown at Kukje Gallery in Seoul.

``Although well regarded by critics, fellow artists, and the general public, Mitchell's achievement has never received full recognition,'' said Richard D. Marshall, an independent curator and an art historian who organized the exhibition. ``More than two-thirds of the paintings at the exhibition were rarely seen before and in some cases were never publicly displayed.''

Throughout her evolution as an abstract painter, Mitchell consistently sought to converge her interests in nature, emotion and painting. Her subjects are landscape, color and light and their interaction on a painterly field, combined with an energetic physical gesture mixed with a romantic sensibility.

Joan Mitchell, Two Pianos, 1979, 141x104 in.

``Instead of pursuing direct description, Mitchell tried to convey allusions to nature through the use of painterly line and movement that would recall memories, sensations, and feelings of the natural world,'' Marshall said.

``Her concern with nature and atmospheric phenomenon encompass her entire life, extending from her childhood memories of Lake Michigan, through her New York City apartments on the East River and in Brooklyn, her frequent sailing trips on the Mediterranean, to her life in the French countryside of Vetheuil.''

``Cypress,'' drawn in 1980, is a painting of trees which shows her great admiration for the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, and is related in subject matter and palette to his landscapes. She captured the chaotic movements in the blue sky, dominated by intense streaks of sunlight in vivid yellow and orange. At the center of the painting are two slashes of green-black, and a few others at the lower left, representing the cypress trees she admired during a visit to Provence.

The expansive, 1980 four-panel painting, ``Edrita Fried,'' is an explosion of painterly activity in blues and yellows. This painting is titled in memory of Mitchell's long-time friend and psychiatrist, and may convey the artist's recollections of the calm, agitation, introspection and revelation that accompany close personal relationships.

A related four-panel work, ``Minnesota,'' 1980, also alludes to landscape with its panoramic horizontality and suggestion of thick trees on the outer two panels that frame a relatively open center of broad yellow sky with low vegetation at the bottom.

Joan Mitchell Foundation, since its establishment in 1993, has been funding young artists with profits gained from Mitchell's exhibitions all over the world. According to Carolyn Somers, director of the foundation, it also supported Korean artists like So Do-ho and Lee Hyung-goo.