Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) was an artist who created abstract oil paintings, drawings, and prints.
In 1974, Joan Mitchell shared with curator Marcia Tucker: “Music, poems, landscape, and dogs make me want to paint... And painting is what allows me to survive.”
These touchpoints were constants for Mitchell in a life that took her from Chicago to New York to her adopted home of France. Learn more about the influences, milestones, and people that impacted her life and work.
Throughout 2025, we are celebrating the centennial of Joan Mitchell’s birth with events, announcements, and programs aimed at increasing appreciation and study of the artist’s life and work, as well as amplifying the connections between her legacy and the work of living artists. Learn more about our plans for the year!
Joan Mitchell’s primary medium was oil paint on canvas, although she also created drawings and prints. Over the course of nearly five decades, she established a singular visual vocabulary rooted in gestural abstraction.
My paintings repeat a feeling about Lake Michigan, or water, or fields... It’s more like a poem... and that’s what I want to paint.”
Joan Mitchell, in film "Joan Mitchell: Portrait of an Abstract Painter"
Look for Mitchell's work in current and upcoming exhibitions, and in museum collections worldwide.
The Foundation collects and preserves materials that illuminate Joan Mitchell’s life, work, and legacy, making them available to students and scholars.
We've compiled a group of books, articles, oral histories, and documentaries about Joan Mitchell and her work.
