Location

not on view

Fun Fact

At the age of 17, Mitchell was named "Figure Skating Queen of the Midwest."

Description

Metro belongs to an early phase in Mitchell’s long career, when she started to earn fame for abstract paintings that balance spontaneity with planning. Its composition is centrifugal: wide patches of reds, maroons, olive greens, and whites clustered in the canvas’s upper center are effectively spinning off into thinner arcs at the sides and bottom.

Provenance

Mrs. John B. Dempsey.

Exhibition history

Newport Beach, CA, Newport Harbor Art Museum (June 28-September 9, 1984) Action/Precision: The New Direction in New York, 1955-60, cat. no. 35, p. 122, repr. p. 123, also traveled to: Worcester, MA, Worcester Art Museum(3 October - 25 November 1984); Grey Art Gallery, New York University (15 January - 23 February 1984); Cincinnati, OH, the Contemporary Arts Center (14 March - 27 April 1984); Buffalo, NY, Albright-Knox Gallery (14 September - 3 November 1984); Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas at Austin (12 January - 23 February 1986).

Washington DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Joan Mitchell: A Retrospective Exhibition (26 February - 1 May 1988); also traveled to San Francisco, CA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (26 May - 18 July 1988); Buffalo, NY, Albright-Knox Gallery (17 September - 6 November 1988); La Jolla, CA, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art (2 December 1988 - 29 January 1989); Ithaca, NY, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University (26 February - 23 April 1989); ill. cat. no. 35, p. 122.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (4/20/99 - 6/13/99); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia (7/6/99 - 10/11/99) "A Rebours" p. 237 (repr.).

A Rebours. Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno (organizer) (April 20-June 13, 1999); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofÍa (July 6-October 11, 1999).

Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).