Author Patricia Albers Presents Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter
Thursday, April 14 | 7 - 8pm
$10 for Members | $15 for Non Members
Painter Joan Mitchell (1925-1992) came of age in the New York of the 1950s, where she went up against the masculine art world to become a leading Abstract Expressionist. In her slide lecture, “Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter,” Patricia Albers will present some of Mitchell’s most emotionally powerful paintings based on memories of her feelings about particular landscapes at particular moments. From New York, Mitchell moved to France, where her work continued to evolve in artistic dialogue with that of van Gogh, Matisse, and others. She became one of the century’s great colorists. After two decades of relative obscurity, Mitchell re-emerged in the 1980s with often-immense canvases that are spontaneous and rigorous, lyrical and tough. Albers will show why and how they were created, ending with such late masterworks as the La Grande Vallée suite, the Sunflowers, and Ici.
Patricia Albers is the author of Joan Mitchell, Lady Painter: A Life, the first biography of abstract painter Joan Mitchell. Her previous book was Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti. She has also curated numerous exhibitions and written catalog essays and art reviews for publications including the New York Times, the San José Mercury News, and squarecylinder. Albers teaches art history at San Jose State University. She has received a Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant, a Ucross Foundation Writing Residency, and an ERFA grant. She is currently working on a biography of Hungarian-born photographer André Kertész.
