Joan Mitchell

Sale: Tajan, Art Abstrait et contemporain, 20 May 1999, lot 46
Acquired from the above sale by the current owner

The left and right panels are inverted in the catalogue illustration, please refer to the online catalogue for an accurate image of the work. The colours are fairly accurate in the catalogue illustration although the overall tonality is slightly more subdued. The works is executed on orginal canvases, not relined. The left panel presents some hairline stabilized cracks, located mainly the black paint. Under Ultra Violet light inspection there is no evidence of restoration. This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"In Mitchell's works...meaning and emotional intensity are produced structurally, as it were, by a whole series of oppositions: dense versus transparent strokes; gridded structure versus more chaotic, ad hoc construction; weight on the bottom of the canvas versus weight on the top; light versus dark chopping versus continuous brush strokes; harmonious and clashing juxtapositions of hue—all are potent signs of meaning and feeling... The gridded planes of color hover over and retreat from the surface of the canvas. And what colors they are: pink, oranges, a touch of vernal green, and then those streaks of hovering darkness that so often seem designed to disrupt ease of comfort or harmony in Mitchell's best canvases."
Linda Nochlin, "Joan Mitchell: A Rage to Paint", in Jane Livingston, The Paintings of Joan Mitchell, University of California Press, 2002, p.58

The present painting perfectly illustrates Linda Nochlin's description of Joan Mitchell's work. In 1976, Mitchell's relationship with Jean-Paul Riopelle began to disintegrate, as the couple spent more and more time apart,  Mitchell in her small house in Vétheuil on the banks of the Seine river, Riopelle between his studio in Saint Cyr en Arthies, a few miles away, and another he built in Laurentides in Canada, as each sought refuge in the production of particularly accomplished works. Untitled, 1976 is part of this corpus of canvases that resume, in a limited space, Joan Mitchell's talent to create veritable symphonies, not of notes, but of dense and expressive colours which breathe life into the composition as if by magic. For, as in Joan Mitchell's works, and particularly in her polyptychs, the lyrical soaring is all the more melodious when it evolves in the constraint of a reduced canvas. A prodigious condensation of paint, as poetic as it is deeply touching and overwhelming.