“The Paintings of Joan Mitchell”
at the Whitney Museum of American Art
New York. June 20-September 29, 2002
“The Paintings of Joan Mitchell,” a retrospective exhibition of the American Abstract Expressionist (1926-1992), gives devotees of painting an opportunity to do something unusual—visit the Whitney Museum of American Art. That may seem like a cheap shot—it was only last spring, after all, that the museum hosted a rewarding show of paintings by Jacob Lawrence. And it should be noted that the Whitney has, in recent years, presented other important exhibitions of painting; one thinks in particular of those devoted to Richard Diebenkorn, Mark Rothko, Arthur Dove, and Florine Stettheimer. Yet even a cursory observer of the scene knows that painting—and, for that matter, art—isn’t the Whitney’s thing. Razzmatazz is. Ever willing to validate the latest transgression, the museum has placed its institutional clout firmly behind the anti-aesthetic. In the process, it has lost whatever credibility it may once have had as a custodian of culture—at least for those of us who cherish art for what it is, rather than for what it can be put in the service of.
It would not be hyperbole, then, to say that entering “The Paintings of Joan Mitchell” which is currently installed on the fourth floor of the Whitney, feels like a sojourn in to hostile territory. Indeed, it comes as something of a shock to see Cross Section of a Bridge(1951), the first painting in the Mitchell show, occupying a
