JOAN MITCHELL Biography

A leading figure of the second generation of Abstract Expressionists in New York City, she was born in Chicago to a wealthy family. She showed early art talent and attended Smith College from 1942 to 1944 and then transferred to the Chicago Art Institute, earning a B.F.A. in 1948 and an M.F.A. in 1950.

From 1948 to 1949, she was in France and then lived in New York City, where she came under the influence of the Abstract Expressionists. She was particularly influenced by the work of Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline and adopted their strong, gestural brushwork and aggressive color. She had her first solo exhibition in 1951 and continued to exhibit after she moved to Paris, France in 1955.

Many of her paintings are based on landscape themes, sometimes the wooded countryside near Vetheuil, France where she moved in 1968. Others are from winter scenes she remembered from her childhood in Chicago.

Source: http://www.askart.com/