Customer Reviews

Joan Mitchell: Portrait of An Abstract Painter

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Joan Mitchell's work is explicitly astonishing. This film is elegant, imaginative, graceful. Mitchell is a hard person to pin down and I think it is because, like her paintings, she just is. What she sees is spared her conscious manipulation, emerging uncensored. I like the idea that her paintings are like poetry, in the way a poem is not a statement but a summary of feelings that somehow cohere into a meaning which can only be felt, rather than spoken. There's just the moving feeling. Her work is organic and fierce and much to be admired. This film did such a good job of introducing me to Mitchell, even though Mitchell resisted the filmmakers. I don't think her resistance is intentional. I think that Mitchell is just a rare, visual creature for whom words are wholly inadequate. I watched it twice in a row.

This film portrays a painter who died in 1992 but whose reputation is still growing. As we get further from the Abstract Expressionist period and the macho myths that defined it, we are able to see more clearly the merits of some of the painters who were outside the canon. Joan Mitchell moved to France in the 1960's, and she continued to develop her art outside the New York hothouse. Some of her greatest work came towards the end of her life in the 1980's and 90's, and we see that here. Her best paintings, such as the Grande Vallee series, rank with the work of people like Kline, de Kooning, and Sam Francis.

She is not an easy interview, though. The film shows her evasiveness and unwillingness to be pinned down on art or her private life, which was tumultuous and fraught with drinking and disappointment. Yet somehow she was able to channel the pain and difficulty into creating very great art, and this video is a fine introduction.

This is a fine video of Joan Mitchell -- a great, great painter. The paintings are luminescent, and some of the photography in the film matches them for the beauty (ah, Paris). The only drawback is that it is too short: one wants just more.

Of course there is another drawback, which is that the discussions about art in the movie are silly. Mitchell is constantly saying I can't talk about what I do, and meanwhile the people around her who talk about her pictures are embarassing themselves.

I first saw this wonderful documentary at a film festival. Joan Mitchell's work was new to me and I was spellbound by the luminosity of her work. I returned to watch the movie a second time, and purchased the original VHS (limited edition) for quite a bit of money. It was worth every penny! For $19.99, it's a steal.

I recommend "Joan Mitchell: Portrait of An Abstract Painter" to anyone interested in this brilliant if defended artist. For all of her issues, Joan Mitchell's authenticity and loyalty to her vision can serve as an inspiration to us all.

And if you can ever see this on the big screen, do! Her paintings are radiant and transformational.

Joan was my mothers cousin. I met Joan before she died at the Whitney in NYC. I heard stories of her and "Uncle Jimmie" , her father, throughout my life. I attempted an art major and now my daughter seeks one. My mother too is an artist. It was watching my family history come alive. Beautifully done. Joan Mitchell: Portrait of An Abstract Painter

I enjoyed this portrait more than I thought I would. Knew nothing about her going into it, and I know just as little at the end. She is not into self-disclosure. However, what she DID talk about was interesting enough for me.

Especially put in the context of her times, she was an independent and free-thinking woman. One person told her about giving her paintings visibility, "if only you were French, and male, and dead." She laughs as she repeats that.

I found the dialog sometimes a bit garbled and, at some points, couldn't understand it. I enjoyed her talking about the "Big Joan and Little Joan." And about how her father was competitive with her and it drove her into painting as a refuge against competition - especially abstract - where he could do nothing to compete.

She mentioned a couple of times that her work came from a place of love. And referred a couple of times to the gender issues of the time. Her dog/s were important to her. I was interested to know what caused her to use a brace/crutch. The only mention she made was when she said she used it to kill a viper.

One person in the film mentioned that, in her paintings, she seems to be hiding something. I'd just been thinking of that as I viewed her work and always seemed to "see" things beyond the main layer. I actually enjoyed a lot of her art - quite a departure from times in the past when I was totally dismissive of abstract paintings.

Totally enjoyable interview.