The Paper Crane

My own paint­ings have shifted towards that of land­scapes, places remem­bered and depicted as abstract topo­graph­i­cal maps. Upon my own paint­ing I have been research­ing the work of Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly, whose paint­ings though vastly dif­fer­ent in con­tent are both equally expres­sive and have cer­tain par­al­lels in style. For instance Mitchell’s 1955 paintng enti­tled No. 5 and Twombly’s 1962 Leda and the Swan. (the title in Twombly’s piece I assume is taken from the Greek Myth of Zeus appear­ing to Leda in the form of a swan, to seduce her.) Twombly unlike Mitchell uses line as a way of writ­ing and cre­at­ing a lan­guage. (Text often incor­po­rated into his can­vas –the lower right hand cor­ner shows text scrawled.) Twombly is known for, and shows well in this piece his use of thick, fren­zied, ener­getic line work. Expres­sively inter­twined, vaguely rec­og­niz­able images appear here and there. And the lus­cious pig­ments and graphic con­trasts of lights and darks fur­ther this idea of seduc­tion. Mitchell’s No. 5 is as expres­sive and her use of color notes appre­ci­a­tion of beauty or that of nos­tal­gia, a por­trait of a place con­jured or remem­bered. Her visual lan­guage is often more poetic, more about the brush stroke and qual­ity there of.

Joan Mitchell, No. 5, 1955, Oil on can­vas, 69 x 68 inches

Cy Twombly, Leda & the Swan, 1962, oil, crayon, pen­cil on can­vas, 75 x 78 3/4 inches

Cy Twombly Unti­tled III, 2005–2007, Acrylic on Wood Panel 243.8 x 365.8 cm

Cy Twombly, Unti­tled 2001, Acrylic, wax crayon, pen­cil, and col­lage 48 3/4 x 39 in. (124 x 99 cm)

Cy Twombly, Unti­tled 2001, Acrylic, wax crayon, and col­lage 48 3/4 x 39 1/4 in. (124 x 99.5 cm)

Joan Mitchell, Sun­flow­ers 1968–1969

Joan Mitchell, City Land­scape, 1955

I know I have posted and writ­ten about this paint­ing by Joan Mitchell before, but I keep com­ing back to it. Enti­tled City Land­scape, this piece is a fan­tas­tic all-over paint­ing, a style in which Mitchell is known for using in her mature career–much like that of Jack­son Pol­lock. It is ener­getic, and chaotic, alive and pul­sat­ing, con­flicted and anx­ious much like the city itself. Iconic in it’s replete style, the chaotic, chro­matic cen­ter is rem­i­nis­cent of the hub of the city’s down­town and the sub­dued more neu­tral, monot­one blocks of color that out­line the perime­ter of the city are like the Sub­urbs; the outskirts—quieter, slower less excit­ing bland­ness that exists much like the col­ors them­selves. It has been noted that to Mitchell white rep­re­sented despair, lone­li­ness and empti­ness. The grey, in this paint­ing rep­re­sents these ideas to me.

As I viewed City Land­scape at The Art Insti­tute of Chicago yes­ter­day, for the third time, I noticed that per­haps Mitchell did not prime her can­vas but applied her oils directly to the linen. In City Land­scape, it is mark­ably notice­able how one can vis­i­bly see the lay­ers; what came first and how each layer lays on or next to another color. Not nec­es­sar­ily com­pet­ing to be noticed but each on it’s own indi­vid­ual path, pass­ing the other col­ors in haste. The size and expres­sion of Mitchell’s brush strokes are also notice­able and some­thing to pay atten­tion to when study­ing this piece.

*Also note­able is the place­ment in the Gallery next to DeKooning’s 1950 paint­ing Exca­va­tion and across from Jack­son Pollock’s 1953 Grey Rain­bow. I really like how this room was curated. Exca­va­tion does remind me a lit­tle of Mitchell’s 1951
paint­ing Cross Sec­tion of a Bridge.
Dekooning’s Exca­va­tion 1950

Jack­son Pol­lock, Grey Rain­bow, 1953

Posted by Dee Clements on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 11:21 am. You can follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.