The Joan Mitchell Foundation Celebrates the American Artist’s Centenary

To mark the centenary of the artist’s birth, the eponymous foundation is staging a series of events and exhibitions around the world, while tirelessly continuing the mission entrusted to it by the American painter.

Joan Mitchell (1925-1992) was commemorated three years ago with a retrospective of her work and the exhibition entitled “Monet – Mitchell” at the Louis Vuitton Foundation (see Gazette 2022 no. 39). In 1982, she was the first female American painter to be shown at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Over 30 of her works are now in French public collections. But aside from her dazzling abstract and naturalistic paintings, people are far less aware of her commitment to young artists. The proponent of the New York School arrived in France for the first time in 1948, and subsequently lived in Paris with the painter Jean Paul Riopelle (see Gazette 2023 no. 24) in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, this ‘Frenchwoman’ at heart bought a house in Vétheuil, where she loved to entertain artists. When she died in 1992, her will stipulated the distribution of her property and the creation of a foundation to “support and assist” them. A year later, the Joan Mitchell Foundation was created in New York: a philanthropic organization that reflects her spirit, led by a board of experts in art, finance and law, and run today by a 30-strong team who manage the programs and administrative side. “Joan Mitchell often invited young poets, artists and musicians to stay at her home for a few days or several months,” says Christa Blatchford, the Foundation’s Executive Director since 2015. ”She offered them a roof over their heads and a place to work, and encouraged them to focus entirely on their art.” In 1994, the organization, endowed with a small sum of money, initiated a grant program for painters and sculptors “to advance their work and careers.” Initially set at $10,000 for 18 creators, the grant amounts rose in 2005 to $25,000 for 25 visual artists. “In 2021, we launched the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, which replaced our previous schemes. This fellowship of $60,000 over five years has been awarded to 15 artists, selected by a jury of five key figures from the art world. The grant requires no work of art in return, and also provides for shared learning through workshops and virtual meetings.”

Joan Mitchell often invited young poets, artists and musicians to stay at her home for a few days or several months.

The Extensive Joan Mitchell Collection

In addition to this fellowship, there are emergency grants: “When a major disaster occurs, like 9/11, Hurricane Katrina or Covid-19, artists sometimes lose their studios, works, supplies or exhibition opportunities,” Blatchford adds. “Often, they don’t have the money to start over. In January, for example, we joined forces with a coalition of American organizations to create the L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund in response to the recent wave of fires.” In the same vein, the Foundation decided to expand its support in 2010 by creating the Joan Mitchell Center: an artist residency center that opened in New Orleans in 2015. Designed to foster creation and experimentation, it also offers opportunities for networking with art professionals and the local cultural community. “Following a selection process by a jury, these residencies of one to five months are available to artists already receiving grants from the Foundation, as well as to artists from New Orleans. Ten studios and accommodation are provided to them in spring, summer and fall/winter. This year, 35 recipients will be staying there.” The Foundation’s missions cover not only grants and residencies, but also the promotion and preservation of Joan Mitchell’s legacy through exhibitions, publications and educational programs. It receives no state funding or external sponsorship, but finances its activities by selling the artist’s works, in accordance with her will. In 2004, the Joan Mitchell estate bequeathed to it the majority of her collection: several hundred pieces including some 200 paintings (e.g. Cercando un ago (c. 1959), Heel, Sit, Stay (1977), Edrita Fried (1981) and a diptych, Untitled, from 1992), works on paper and engravings from over four decades of creation. The collection also contains a few works by Riopelle and other more modest works by artist friends, as well as several donated archives containing over 11,000 photographs and letters to her former husband, the American publisher Barney Rosset, and to relatives. It also includes art archives, various 19^th and 20^th century family documents, work materials and part of her personal library.

The Foundation has kept a group of iconic works from this huge legacy, making them available to researchers for their studies and the organization of major museum exhibitions. Among the most recent is the touring retrospective on the artist lasting from 2021 to 2023. This opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and was then presented at the Baltimore Museum of Art before a final stop in Paris. Carefully selected from pieces that would duplicate the main collection, the works put up for sale (exclusively through the Zwirner Gallery since 2018) are used to build up a portfolio of assets, reinvested to ensure a steady income and guarantee the Foundation’s long-term sustainability. “Thanks to this portfolio, over the last 32 years, over €21 M has been paid to 1,342 artists including Mark Dion, Simone Leigh and Julie Mehretu,” says Christa Blatchford. ”For us, the Foundation is a true gift from one creator to others.”

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Jean Paul Riopelle (1923-2002)

An International Celebration

In 2025, the artist’s foundation is still working on the Joan Mitchell catalogue raisonné, for which ten years’ research on her paintings has already been carried out in Paris and New York. It is also organizing celebrations for the centenary of her birth, which started off at the Centre Pompidou in Paris with a musical and poetic program reflecting her tastes, and will continue elsewhere. A wide array of international events is being organized to honor her life and work and her influence on contemporary artists. In addition to a tribute at the 113^th Conference of the College Art Association in New York, the program included an exhibition in Louisiana of works by former residents, online conversations, a seminar, a symposium and the publication of the first children’s book dedicated to the artist. More than 70 museums across the United States, Europe and Australia will be exhibiting nearly 100 of her works. Closer to home, a dozen institutions are joining in the events laid on by the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, the Museum of Contemporary Art-MAC/CCB in Lisbon and the Centre Pompidou. Last but not least, Mara Hoberman, the researcher in charge of the catalogue raisonné in Paris, will be giving a series of lectures in France starting in March. The Joan Mitchell Foundation promotes and preserves her legacy through a diverse and generous approach, while supporting contemporary creation. A century after the artist’s birth, it perpetuates her influence on art across the generations.

Worth Seeing, Worth Reading
Joan Mitchell Centenary Program
joanmitchellfoundation.org

Lisa Roger
Joan Mitchell Paints a Symphony.
La Grande Vallée Suite
Illustrations by Stacy Innerst
Published by Calkins Creeks, 2025
40 pages, in English, around €19