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Joan Mitchell — Untitled
Joan Mitchell

Untitled

1960

This abstract composition employs gestural brushwork and a luminous palette of blues, reds, and creams to create a dynamic, non representational field. Bold strokes of color intersect and layer across the canvas, suggesting movement and energy without depicting recognizable forms. The artist builds spatial depth through overlapping marks and tonal variations, inviting the viewer to experience color relationships and painterly process as primary subjects. The work exemplifies the expressive abstraction of the early 1960s, where intuitive mark making and chromatic intensity convey emotional and sensory experience.

Medium
oil on canvas
Overall

Notes

Contemporary Day Auction, Sotheby's, sale on 2026-05-15.

🔨 Auction Lot

Contemporary Day Auction

May 15, 2026

Estimate: $1,500,000$2,000,000

For Sale

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Spotted works by Joan Mitchell

About this work

Joan Mitchell, Untitled, 1960

This abstract composition employs gestural brushwork and a luminous palette of blues, reds, and creams to create a dynamic, non representational field. Bold strokes of color intersect and layer across the canvas, suggesting movement and energy without depicting recognizable forms. The artist builds spatial depth through overlapping marks and tonal variations, inviting the viewer to experience color relationships and painterly process as primary subjects. The work exemplifies the expressive abstraction of the early 1960s, where intuitive mark making and chromatic intensity convey emotional and sensory experience.

Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 33 x 40.6 cm
Year
1960
Seen at
Sotheby's, New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris

Related themes

Expressive Brushwork, Modernist Work, Chromatic Composition, Canvas Oil Painting, Non-Representational Art, Improvisational Gesture, Dynamic Movement, Contemporary Abstraction, Painterly Expression, Post-War Modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Gestural Abstraction, Twentieth Century Art, Color Field Painting, Abstract Composition

More works by Joan Mitchell

Collected by

Art Institute of Chicago