1960s painting
A01=Joan Mitchell
Abstract Expressionism
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Author_Joan Mitchell
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David Zwirner
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Product details
- ISBN 9781644231890
- Dimensions: 241 x 298mm
- Publication Date: 15 Oct 2026
- Publisher: David Zwirner
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Dedicated to Joan Mitchell’s remarkable paintings from 1960 to 1965, this richly produced catalogue illuminates a pivotal chapter in the internationally acclaimed artist’s career.
After settling permanently in France in 1959, Mitchell spent long stretches living on a sailboat along the Côte d’Azur, absorbing the shifting light, water, and rugged coastlines of the Mediterranean. Back in her Paris studio, these experiences gave rise to canvases that diverged dramatically from her earlier work, replacing structured compositional frameworks with more experimental, atmospheric forms.
Characterized by dense, central currents of deep greens and blues that veil luminous colors beneath, the paintings of this period pulse with turbulence and lyricism. Poet John Ashbery described them as “an unhurried meditation on bits of landscape and air,” capturing Mitchell’s ability to translate sensation and memory into paint. This catalogue, published on the occasion of the exhibition To define a feeling: Joan Mitchell, 1960–1965 at David Zwirner, New York, explores how these works advanced her approach to structure and color while engaging the enduring themes that define her oeuvre.
The volume features an essay by the exhibition curator Sarah Roberts, a text by Saul Nelson on Mitchell’s relationship to the critic Clement Greenberg, and reviews from the 1960s by Ashbery and Pierre Schneider, offering rich historical context for this transformative moment in the artist’s career.
After settling permanently in France in 1959, Mitchell spent long stretches living on a sailboat along the Côte d’Azur, absorbing the shifting light, water, and rugged coastlines of the Mediterranean. Back in her Paris studio, these experiences gave rise to canvases that diverged dramatically from her earlier work, replacing structured compositional frameworks with more experimental, atmospheric forms.
Characterized by dense, central currents of deep greens and blues that veil luminous colors beneath, the paintings of this period pulse with turbulence and lyricism. Poet John Ashbery described them as “an unhurried meditation on bits of landscape and air,” capturing Mitchell’s ability to translate sensation and memory into paint. This catalogue, published on the occasion of the exhibition To define a feeling: Joan Mitchell, 1960–1965 at David Zwirner, New York, explores how these works advanced her approach to structure and color while engaging the enduring themes that define her oeuvre.
The volume features an essay by the exhibition curator Sarah Roberts, a text by Saul Nelson on Mitchell’s relationship to the critic Clement Greenberg, and reviews from the 1960s by Ashbery and Pierre Schneider, offering rich historical context for this transformative moment in the artist’s career.
Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) established a singular visual vocabulary over the course of her more than four-decade career. While rooted in the conventions of abstraction, Mitchell’s inventive reinterpretation of the traditional figure-ground relationship and remarkable adeptness with color set her apart from her peers, resulting in intuitively constructed and emotionally charged compositions that alternately conjure individuals, observations, places, and points in time.
Sarah Roberts is the Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She previously served in progressive leadership roles in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the SFMOMA, and was most recently the Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture.
Saul Nelson is a Junior Research Fellow and Teaching Associate in History of Art at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. His first book, Never Ending: Modernist Painting Past and Future, was published by Yale University Press in 2024. His writing has appeared in Art History, American Art, Oxford Art Journal, New Left Review, Critical Inquiry, and The London Review of Books.
John Ashbery (1927–2017) was born in Rochester, New York. He was the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry, including Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. The winner of many other prizes and awards both nationally and internationally, he received a National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama at the White House, in 2012.
Sarah Roberts is the Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She previously served in progressive leadership roles in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the SFMOMA, and was most recently the Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture.
Saul Nelson is a Junior Research Fellow and Teaching Associate in History of Art at Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge. His first book, Never Ending: Modernist Painting Past and Future, was published by Yale University Press in 2024. His writing has appeared in Art History, American Art, Oxford Art Journal, New Left Review, Critical Inquiry, and The London Review of Books.
John Ashbery (1927–2017) was born in Rochester, New York. He was the author of more than twenty-five books of poetry, including Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1975), which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award. The winner of many other prizes and awards both nationally and internationally, he received a National Humanities Medal, presented by President Barack Obama at the White House, in 2012.
