Tondo 1991

Curator: Oh, wow! Look at this energetic display of brushstrokes! I see a swirling vortex of deep blues and greens wrestling for dominance, while these jolts of orange electrify the overall tension. Editor: This is Joan Mitchell’s “Tondo” created in 1991 using oil on canvas. You instantly notice the round format. The title itself refers to that circular shape which might echo Renaissance precedents, yet radically breaks with classical compositions through her unmistakable abstract language. What stands out for you regarding materials and the method she’s using? Curator: Immediately, it feels incredibly physical, almost like I'm witnessing the artist’s body move, a frantic dance across the canvas. The circular canvas confines that wild energy within a frame, like the memory of a frenzied embrace. Editor: Yes! It's very tempting to only analyze gesture in abstraction, but I see so much emphasis on the facture, the very construction and assembly here. Consider the sheer labor invested to generate such density in the application of paint – and then try to reconcile the market values of these kinds of all-over, large-scale paintings to the actual exploitation and alienation that shapes the art workforce. The relationship between these materials and capitalist commodification cannot be ignored. Curator: I’m too busy diving into this beautiful chaos to overthink it! Don’t forget it’s still such an emotionally potent field! Think of it as a storm viewed from a great distance: powerful and intimidating, yet serene. The canvas as an arena where colors meet, collide, and find a weird harmony... like jazz! Editor: Perhaps. But one may ask how the industrial production of canvases themselves has impacted painterly practice? We tend to neglect what comes "before" artistic creation. Before every artwork, a factory churns. That interplay between Mitchell’s individual expression, as you pointed out, and those forces interests me! Curator: Still, as I continue circling the work, so much remains that whispers, taunts and provokes, all without settling into resolution... In a way, it is a landscape turned inward. I see fields, I hear birds… Perhaps her last burst of vibrant expression? Editor: Ultimately, these late works by Mitchell demonstrate a continuous negotiation between expressive possibility and the reality of their material making within particular socio-economic circumstances.