Dimensions: image: 1013 x 750 mm
Copyright: © Estate of Joan Mitchell | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: So, here we have Joan Mitchell's "Sides of a River II," which lives here at the Tate. It’s bursting with yellows and dark scribbles. I am curious, how do you interpret this work? Curator: For me, it’s a visual poem. Look at how that frenetic energy of the dark lines meets the sunny disposition of the yellow. What do you make of that contrast? Editor: It feels like chaos fighting against joy, or maybe joy trying to contain the chaos. Curator: Exactly! And perhaps that's what a river is – a constant negotiation between stillness and movement. It mirrors life, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely. I never would have considered that. It makes me want to watch a river!
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tate 5 months ago
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mitchell-sides-of-a-river-ii-p12148
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tate 5 months ago
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Mitchell began her career in New York, where she was closely associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement. Much of her work was concerned with her experience of landscape. Although these prints are heavily abstracted, there are strong traces of the natural world, as the title indicates. Dense bands of marks at the top and bottom of the paper can be seen as river banks. The lightly-worked areas between suggest the water of the river itself. Gallery label, July 2008
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