How to look at an abstract painting | Joan Mitchell | PROGRAM

[@rjsarner]

One the most comprehensive studies of Joan Mitchell I have ever heard. Well done to all three ladies for their extensive knowledge and ability to evaluate and describe not only the possible feelings and objective of the artist but with certainty, describe “abstract expressionism” like a boss! Well done to the speakers and film crew! Thank you! It was absolutely educational and inspiring! :)

[@milootje007]

It's abstract expressionism, it's a dance of shape and color and structure. It doesn't need to be more, that is enough to touch someone emotionally in profound ways.

[@signjoey]

My fav definition of art..."Art is whatever you can get away with." MARSHALL McLEWAN

[@melissaaimeeroberts9971]

"When you say abstract painting what do you mean?" followed by a conversation between three people who are fully engaged in abstract art and literally speak an abstract language... if my mom watched this she would have no idea what you're talking about. The world of art enthusiasts can come across as out of touch and cliqué, if art is an expression why is it so intimidating to approach in conversation? That being said, I had no idea who Mitchell was before this examination and you've caught my interest.

[@leststoner]

That's their power.

[@lomps]

What struck me is each persons subjectivity expressed in response to the paintings. Its almost like sandbox therapy. The paintings become a way to process how we see, think, and feel. Abstract painting is a language that can be so free that it can describe the ineffable. But we lose the ineffable the second we start to describe it in spoken language. So to me that's the core of abstraction. Its primacy is that the worlds that it describes are pre or post verbal. It washes over you in ways that are impossible to describe or articulate. For example I recently smelled a sprig of white sage while hiking in nature. I tried as best I could to capture how I felt. It was a nostalgia that seemed like a remembrance from the dawn of humankind infused with a kind of sacred optimism. Or like an old friend offering kind words. So it seems like poetry and metaphor might be the only analogous spoken language models to approximate the ineffable qualities of abstract painting.

[@markchandler7089]

The best figurative painting is using abstraction and the best abstract painting references aspects of visual reality. We create visual narratives just as we use language to explain aspects of our experience.

[@angebo5951]

To me, Joan Mitchell's painting are all about feeling, more powerful than analytical studies. I feel something when I see them. And the color alone is absolutely striking.

[@lisengel2498]

I really love to look at Joan Mitchells paintings - they are for me a visuel poetry opening into different vibrational States - they seem to be songs of Life 🎵🧡🎶

[@banga8934]

Amazing ! We want more of this !

[@razannoor4664]

This is a great talk. Learned so much about Joan Mitchell.. Keep spreading knowledge 💫

[@pisongsea]

This is incredible! Please keep this series going 🙏

[@timothyobrien9183]

I don’t know what she’s doing, but I love her work. The color combinations work beautifully. Her style reminds me of the impressionists.

[@lisengel2498]

And by the way some philosophers are very aware of all the challenges of theories of consciousness and subjectivity and objectivity. It’s about how we actually experience and expresse “the felt sense” . I love the French book titled “ the visible and the invisible” written by Maurice Merleau Ponry and I think that lived life and all art is about sensitive awareness. These paintings are just so strong. 🎵🧡🎶🎨

[@missinglink9973]

abstraction to me is feeling, emotion, experience, imagination, trauma, sadness, joy transferred from mind body and soul onto a sub straight

[@Cbx452]

The painting they are talking about at 16:24 pulls me to a garden on a sunny day, and emotionally makes me feel relaxed and wined down, like I'm sitting near a garden, having a drink and a smoke! The painting be great in a relaxed area.

[@barbarasenglaub1655]

Love this video and discussion! Please do more of these.

[@anthonylopez9594]

Abstraction is like any other painting. The difference being the representative aspects are 'abstracted' at varying levels to the point where often the subject matter becomes about the formal elements of painting rather that a thing. Beyond that we have to engage the artwork based off of what we have before us and what the artist has created in their body of work. For example Mark Rothko seems to be into showing you layers of time quite literally. He allows you to see how the layers build up and affect each other. Then you bring yourself to the discussion as you complete the 'art' in a sense with your own personal experiences.

[@MultiRius]

To me, art is the culmination of balance, eye movement, rhythm, contrast, and harmony. Musical symphony.

[@RashaunMichelle]

I love this conversation

[@lisengel2498]

Funny to listen to the discussions about the experience - it shows how much we are uniquely interwoven with whatever we focus on. There is multidimensional ways of experience. My way of experiencing goes from a felt sense of the total to a close experiencing details, relations, feelings, the tactilities and dynamics - it’s just a gorgeous painting showing “intense vibrations of life and light” 🎶🧡🎵🎨

[@leonardoluc6362]

Fab paintings as it appears in front and flows out the color and composition has ritme, thanks for the show.

[@EVA55102]

Feeling like music is always beautiful

[@michal_placzek]

I'm so glad that this meeting took place.

[@Anna-pv4tv]

It's curious... But I perceive her as clearly a landscape painter. And I like very much her work.

[@jimhresco1728]

On and on talking and analyzing. It's visual and personal to each individual.

[@deanhundley4130]

Very nice. I love the different aspects to Joan's work discussed. Thank you!

[@almost_asterisk]

This was so pleasurable to watch; i can't get enough! Thank you 🌞👍

[@trebledog]

The wonderful thing about abstract paintings is that anyone can say just about anything coming from infinite POVS. All descriptive words and feelings are only as legitimate as how well one can string those words together. In every sense an abstract is a direct piercing of the heart and mind.

[@aletha16]

They are very large canvases painted in bright colors with gestural brushstrokes. They are not so much "abstract" as non-representative. They are just what you see. So if you like the beautiful color -- there you go. Why do people enjoy looking at the colors of leaves in autumn? We don't need an explanation for that element of visual splendor. Maybe not every Mitchell canvas is as successful as the one behind them. But that's basically it. I have never encountered anyone needing or wanting an explanation for why one likes looking at flowers. Isn't this, more or less, the same thing? The paintings are pretty. Pretty. It's not a bad word. Mitchell's paintings are pretty.

[@jamesg2382]

Thank you. So nice to hear these in depth discussions.

[@kendram1893]

Thank you for this wonderful discussion and including a clip of Joan Mitchell speaking of her work in the environment these beautiful pieces were created. Such magnificent work!

[@CC-vw1cs]

Really got lost in this enjoyable exchange, thank you !

[@moschy5623]

Much help for opening one’s eyes and mind just a little bit more! Great!

[@robertwebber8672]

Just such a great talk on so many levels. One to re watch!

[@nancyperreault3732]

Excellent program !

[@petemc5070]

Stunning paintings.

[@thomasbridges4396]

At first I thought they sounded ridiculous. By the end I appreciated them and thought how brave they are

[@swimmingisme]

It’s about capturing fleeting moment and feeling

[@anastassiyakim7041]

Really enjoyed this talk. It s always interesting to listen when people discuss abstract art, especially those with experience. Joan is not my fav artist , I find her smaller pieces more beautiful - but this is very personal thing. Anyway great talk 🎉

[@hozemolina]

Increible! Muchas Gracias !

[@kerryklaassen]

I was able to see the Joan Mitchell retrospective at SFMOMA in 2021. Seeing her art in person, for me, was similar to the way Erin read one of the paintings. I would view it from across the room, and as I came closer, I saw the complexity of the work, the different viscosities of paint, the different types of marks and drips, the richness of it. The catalog for the retrospective is wonderful, but it is difficult to reproduce the extremely large paintings in a book. The in-person experience was indescribable. Thanks for this discussion.

[@sidneygage]

we are all glad erin got the title right 🤣 nice touch :P thanks for sharing

[@ingridllinas5612]

Indeed. It was a great talk. They do have the studies, practice and dominium, that make us comprehend her abstracts painting the best way possible. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. For me it is hard to read an abstract painting unless i have had some reading before of the oeuvre.

[@chris.s.3163]

Yes, brilliant analysis! I think one can also take these types of paintings, the tryptics that is, as a sort of place, transcendental or contemplative at least, a garden for the deseseased, friends, loved ones, as if to transfer her love for, her addiction to art onto her pure, abstract affection to those people. These paintings are in that sense dedications. Her special contribution to modern or contempiorary art may just be this directness and intensity of nearness, which of course is also a quite widespread issue of modern art in general and in abstract expressionism especially.

[@Whitters40]

@2:15 She gives the BEST description of what it feels like for me when I sit and draw. People ask me, what is going on in your mind when you draw this stuff? And my answer is always, nothing and everything. It just pours out and I can't hold it back once it comes. Not surprised she could describe the creation of art that way since she herself experiences it. However, some of this discussion comes off very pretentious yet mostly from the other two ladies, which also isn't surprising.

[@ThisisRubbishlo]

An interesting video I loved the interpretations and agree

[@madhavmankar1898]

अतिशय सुरेख अप्रतिम विडीओ.स्त्री व अर्थबोध लेक्चर, पेंटिंग विशेष ब्रसवरील स्कूल ऑफ आर्ट गॅलरी, अमूर्त संकल्पलना रुपांतरीत सौंदर्य कल्पना शक्तीच्या आधारे भूमिकेतून त्यांनी सांगितले आहे.आधुनिक व प्राचीन ग्रेट चित्रकार शिल्पकार, आभार सह धन्यवाद ❤🎉🎉😮😊😊😊

[@kimgapjin-art]

Beautiful Beautiful

[@AbandonedMonolith]

I am an abstract painter (cubist). I find in cubism the forms get deranged but can still clearly resemble something we can understand. To be honest I have a difficult time connecting with most higher abstract arts and wonder if it may be an emotional intelligence issue. I don’t necessarily feel things base in scribbles and color juxtaposition?

[@etanben-ami8305]

Why hasn't anyone mentioned Pierry Bonnard and other fauvists as major influences / contexts for Mitchell? Take a look at the Fauvists and you'll agree.

[@EVA55102]

Nice color scheme

[@nadayounis1747]

Amazing video

[@madhavmankar1898]

Nice All three women in the paintings information about the today video interesting about Descation of the Art's Vizlistion process Thanks 🙏❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉

[@RiteOn]

Arting and talking about it are such completely different endeavors . . . and yet the talking seems to trump the arting in importance. But if you don't art, you don't have anything to talk about. Art doesn't require a discussion. It exists independently. And talking about it doesn't add any value. If you have no idea what you are looking at and need an explanation to appreciate it . . . you are not "into art". That is all.

[@foolyanr.1]

You have a zen-buddhist way in interpretating Art. I See it the Same way. (The Name that can be called is not the enternal Name. Same with Art.) // But I enjoyed the conversation

[@MoniqueBourgeois]

I would love to know the title of the painting at 16:08 ...I did not hear them mention it. Does anyone know?

[@LorwelDonquist]

Love this, I paint with “Painters Painting” in the paintground background excuse me 🎨🙃

[@dinkadog1]

you'd have lost that relative after the first 4 minutes of this discussion. How about validating someone's response to color alone....mark making...something you can see without being told.

[@carolmartin8781]

There is nothing specific in the way these ladies describe abstract art. They merely suggest possibilities based on what they know about the artist, where she lived, in a room, outside in a garden, next door to Monet, etc. Basically, it's whatever the observer wants to see.

[@dimitrilikissas]

To paint is indispensable

[@mygicshow]

Great stuff, all 3 have good views, Joan was a master of violent beauty… IMP

[@marijanalicina904]

Abstraction is a manner of expression in which one talks and thinks about something, but that something is not present.

[@inlovewithhumans]

It's the painting of a dog at 17.59 A white dog

[@renzo6490]

I experience non- representational painting in the same way I experience Jazz. I would not analyze these paintings too closely. It's like looking at a close up of a van Gogh and trying to probe and research why he put multiple colors on his brush and what those colors represent. It's trying to get into the mind of the creator to make comprehensible what is probably not comprehensible even to the artist.

[@MsLoila]

Interesting outlook, since pollock was also primarily inspired by jazz.

[@nancya7289]

Thanks for this. If anyone cares to explain why, by early 20th c, "the gig is up" with putting nudes in a landscape, I'd appreciate it.

[@ivanklymenko]

😍😍😍

[@AbdulAbdul-qp4yo]

❤

[@mjeffn2]

I have two reactions. The first is Joan’s paintings aren’t about tension. Having the panelists discuss their feelings and thoughts of her work while seated uncomfortably on hard minimalist chairs was very incongruous and distracting from both the painting behind them and the content of the thoughts they were valiantly trying to convey. At the end of the video they were standing, like Joan, during continues discussion and seemed much more in tune and less strained for words. My second reaction is that discussion and conversation as a medium will not ever meaningfully convey, describe or, explain abstraction or the graded purity of abstraction. One might just as well, without any greater success, try to do the same for a Sun Ra recording. Conversation with respect to abstraction is like anti-matter to matter, they cancel each other out. Like Pollack, Joan Mitchell, made images on canvas using brushes and paint that are interesting to look at.

[@jerryconner4270]

I'm an abstract painter unknown and I don't paint to sell but too experiment in what I can create NEW. People will talk about art and artists for various reasons mostly because they are getting paid to do so, that's the bottom line. Do they know what they are talking about? So do some dont, I no longer care because this is how they make THEIR living. I usually don't listen to the mumble jumble, if you can't get in touch yourself with the emotional message a piece of art has to tell you, you are lost already. As in any other profession, there are good and bad people, greedy, stupid or honorable and intelligent. Art criticism in general, if done without ulterior motives is positive.

[@kristinamullen4066]

To me, it seems strange to tell people how to see anything, as if they're unable to control their own perceptions.I just look and let it speak to me.I'm not a huge fan of abstraction, although I appreciate all good art, which just means what resonates with me.

[@ITcanB]

Abstract art/painting is a visual response of a individual's psyche.

[@KOACAINE]

Joan Mitchell looks like Joey Ramone.

[@yaya.arizonalovesanchez5093]

1. [1] In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters

[@michaelwells6075]

Words are more abstract than paint. The alphabet forming these words is nothing more than lines forming shapes that when arranged in an established order are given meaning by collectively agreed-upon associations. The meaning isn't in the shapes of the letters or their arrangements. In themselves, they mean nothing more than mowbzitclw; which is to say nothing at all. Whatever meaning we ascribe to them is just that, a property not of the letters forming these words, but of our ability to ascribe meaning to them. By comparison, paint is a substance that has multiple visceral characteristics, independent of any acculturated associations or identifiable simulations or representations. When used to represent or simulate identifiable subjects, we must keep in mind that, as René Magritte's "The Treachery of Images" reminds us, _leci n'est pas une pipe_ (this is not a pipe). It is paint; and the meaning it has is not in what it represents, but in what it does to us as we gaze upon and into it.

[@johnnewland2409]

Bottom line: You like it or you don’t.

[@bigcirkus306]

I must be imensely stupid. I couldn`t understand neither the speakers nor the comentators. Absolutely nothing. But I do believe that there is some misterious content in all that that I am not able to grasp.

[@KokiKokimemon]

Soft musings

[@Schizonoise]

rip

[@pest2170]

instringic??? hmm, please, explain.