Grandes Carrières
Joan Mitchell
American, 1925–1992
1961-62
An expansive oil painting in which Joan Mitchell layers vigorous brushwork, drips, and splashes of color to evoke the sensation and memory of a landscape rather than its literal appearance.
A dense, tumbling mass of cobalt, brown, magenta, and green seems to surge across a scraped, pale ground, its thick impasto, scumbled passages, and trailing drips giving a visceral sense of wind, weight, and restless motion.
Painted at the height of her practice, Grandes Carrières exemplifies Mitchell’s lyrical brand of Abstract Expressionism—translating personal topography into tumultuous, large-scale painterly fields and expanding the movement’s emotional and chromatic possibilities while asserting a powerful female voice in a male-dominated scene.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
6' 6 3/4" x 9' 10 1/4" (200 x 300.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of The Estate of Joan Mitchell
Accession
443.1994
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
