Untitled . 1956
Mitchell’s commitment to the tenets of gestural abstraction remained firm and uncompromising during all her life. A dense and striking composition characterizes the early Untitled painting from 1951, while the Untitled painting from 1958 depicts a more tempestuous and expressive surface, whereas Le chemin des écoliers, 1960, betrays the inspiration from the French landscapes.
After 1960, during a difficult period in her life, Mitchell created a series of very intense works, where the colourful and rhythmic all-over brushstrokes gave way to a concentration of a central, thick dark mass. 1964 marks the culmination of what she called her “black-paintings”.
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