Sunflower III

Maeght Editeur, Paris, France

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1972

Color etching and aquatint on Arches paper

32/75

Plate: 26 3/4 × 17 3/16 in. (67.9 × 43.7 cm)

Sheet: 35 5/8 × 24 13/16 in. (90.5 × 63 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Acquired in Honor of Margaret Dyer Chamberlain, Acting Director of the Hood Museum of Art, 1999-2000

PR.2001.16

Publisher

Joan Mitchell

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Print

Research Area

Print

Not on view

Inscriptions

Signed, in graphite, lower right: Joan Mitchell; numbered, in graphite, lower left: 32/75; inscribed, on reverse, in graphite, lower center: III| watermark, lower right: ARCHES / FRANCE

Label

Joan Mitchell expresses her experience in nature by recreating a singular plant. Perhaps removing the sunflower from its field represents her own individuality and isolation. Mitchell breaks down the flower, dismantling the cheerful form to represent its life cycle and alluding to decay through composition and color choice. Her loose mark making pushes beyond simple representation of the flower, creating a deeper emotional connotation.

A second-generation Abstract Expressionist known primarily for her paintings, Mitchell explored printmaking after leaving New York for the French countryside in 1959. Living at a property previously owned by French Impressionist Claude Monet, Mitchell depicted her immediate surroundings, namely the sunflowers in her garden that soon became a recurrent symbol in her work. Compare Mitchell’s print with Sara Sosnowy’s Track 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, also in this exhibition.

From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 105, Transcendent Landscapes: Abstracting Nature, curated by Alice Crow '22, Levinson Intern

Course History

SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Colleen Randall, Spring 2022

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 105, Transcendent Landscape: Abstracting Nature, Alice Crow, Class of 2023, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 5 - April 23, 2022

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 15-March 10, 2002.

Provenance

G. W. Einstein Company, Inc., New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2001.

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