Minnesota 1980

Joan Mitchell's "Minnesota" is a large, multi-paneled painting, where fields of yellows and greys jostle across the surface. Mitchell’s marks feel impulsive, direct, and almost reckless, but up close, you can see how each stroke is carefully placed. There’s a real physical push and pull here – thick impasto next to thin washes, aggressive scrawls against airy, open spaces. Look at how the black marks anchor the bottom of each panel, like dark earth from which everything else springs. Mitchell doesn’t conceal her process; she lays it bare. It’s like she’s inviting us into her studio, to witness the act of painting itself. I find it fascinating to see how Mitchell wrestles with the tradition of landscape painting. Someone like Monet comes to mind but while he sought to capture fleeting moments of light, Mitchell seems more interested in capturing the enduring energy of nature, not trying to fix it, but to let it keep moving.