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Throwback Thursday: Joan Mitchell

January 11, 2018

Installation view of Joan Mitchell at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (September 17–November 16, 1988). Blue Territory, 1972 (Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1972. Conservation funded by grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project) is at far right. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. 

Thanks in part to conservation funded by a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, the Albright-Knox was recently able to put on view all three paintings by Joan Mitchell in its collection: George Went Swimming at Barnes Hole, but It Got Too Cold, 1957; Blue Territory, 1972; and Rosebud, 1977. 

One of the last times these three works were shown together was in 1988 as part of the artist’s first major traveling retrospective, which was on view at the Albright-Knox from September 17–November 16, 1988; the artist herself visited the museum to celebrate the Members’ Preview. 

Artist Joan Mitchell (seated, right) and guests at the Members’ Preview of Joan Mitchell on September 16, 1988. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. 

Visitors at the Members’ Preview of Joan Mitchell on September 16, 1988. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. 

Installation view of Joan Mitchell, on view at the Albright-Knox, September 17–November 16, 1988. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. 

Installation view of Joan Mitchell at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (September 17–November 16, 1988). Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York.