Madison Fred Mitchell (November 24, 1923 – May 21, 2013) belonged to the New York School

Abstract Expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of t ...

artists whose influence and artistic innovation by the 1950s had been recognized around the world. New York School

Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, represented by

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a ho ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter ...

Franz Kline Franz Kline (May 23, 1910 – May 13, 1962) was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Kline, along with other action painters like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Moth ...

and others became a leading

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defin ...

of the post-World War II era.

Biography

Fred Mitchell was born November 24, 1923, in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County and the principal city of the Meri ...

. Following graduation from Meridian High School, Mitchell attended the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

(now

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technolog ...

), until his studies were interrupted by military duty. After serving in the Army, Mitchell enrolled in the

Cranbrook Academy of Art The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of Cra ...

, where he eventually received his M.F.A. He died New York City on May 21, 2013.

Studied painting

*1942-1943:

Pittsburgh, PA Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsyl ...

with scholarship *1948, 1950, 1951: Accademia di Belle Arti, Instituto Meschini, Rome, Italy *1948:

, Bloomfield Hills, MI received BFA;

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, New York City in summer;

Atelier 17 Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York during the years surrounding World War II. It moved back t ...

with Stanley Hayter *1956:

, Bloomfield Hills, MI received MFA

Participation in the Downtown Art Scene

In 1947 Mitchell was the winner of

Pepsi Cola Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

cash award of $1,500; He sailed to Rome. During his visit to Rome he met painters John Heliker, Afro (Basadella), and Philip Guston, who had major influence on his work. Returning to the US, in 1951 Mitchell moved to New York City and became one of the first painters to open a painting studio in the downtown seaport area along the East River known as Coenties Slip (Manhattan). He soon joined the "Downtown Group" which represented a group of artists who found studios in lower Manhattan. In 1952 Mitchell, Angelo Ippolito, Lois Dodd, Charles Cajori and William King organized the Tanager Gallery, which belonged to the Tenth Street galleries. His friend Philip Pavia introduced Mitchell to 'The Club'.

Teaching positions

Mitchell was also a highly regarded teacher: *1952–1954: Drawing and Painting, Neighborhood House, Riverdale. NY *1954:

Finch College Finch College was an undergraduate women's college in Manhattan, New York City. The Finch School opened as a private secondary school for girls in 1900 and became a liberal arts college in 1952. It closed in 1976. Founding Finch was founded in ...

, NY; Founded Coenties Slip (Manhattan) School of Art *1956: Positano Art Workshop.

Positano Positano (Campanian: ) is a village and ''comune'' on the Amalfi Coast (Province of Salerno), in Campania, Italy, mainly in an enclave in the hills leading down to the coast. Climate The climate of Positano is very mild, of the Mediterranean ...

, Italy *1955–1959: Cranbrook Academy of Arts,

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

*1961–1968: Downtown Art Center, Seamens Church Institute, Coenties Slip (Manhattan), NY *1961–1971:

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, t ...

*1968–1969:

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

Ithaca, NY Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named aft ...

*1973–1974:

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

CUNY , mottoeng = The education of free people is the hope of Mankind , budget = $3.6 billion , established = , type = Public university system , chancellor = Fél ...

*1975–1980: Southern Tip School of Art,

South Street Seaport The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district, ...

, NY *1979–1983:

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhat ...

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admin ...

program, NY *1985–2003:

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may st ...

;''Instructors and Lecturers-Past and Present at the Art Students League of New York''
*1986–2000:

Selected solo exhibitions

*1942, 1965: Municipal Gallery,

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...

*1953: Tanager Gallery, New York City *1954: Neighborhood House, New York, NY *1956: Positano Art Workshop,

, Italy *1958, 1960, 1961, 1963: Howard Wise Gallery,

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

and New York *1964: "i" Gallery, La Jolla, CA *1965: Ford Foundation Award,

Columbia Museum of Art The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina. History The Columbia Museum of Art was originally in the 1908 private residence of the city's Taylor family. Located on Senate Street in Columbia, ad ...

, Columbia, SC *1966: Wooster Art Center,

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

*1968: Wisconsin State University, Platteville *1972, 1988: Meridian Museum of Art,

*1973: Image Gallery,

Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridge is ...

; Roko Gallery, New York City *1974:

Art Library

Gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gre ...

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

; Art Gallery,

University of Maine at Machias The University of Maine at Machias (UMaine Machias or UMM) is a public college in Machias, Maine. It is part of the University of Maine System. The institution was founded in 1909 as a normal school for educating teachers, and offers studies in ...

*1976, 1977: Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Gallery,

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the fo ...

; University Art Gallery, SUNY

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluen ...

*1979: "Southern Tip Series,"

South Street Seaport Museum The South Street Seaport is a historic area in the New York City borough of Manhattan, centered where Fulton Street meets the East River, and adjacent to the Financial District, in Lower Manhattan. The Seaport is a designated historic district, ...

, New York City *1982: Landmark Gallery, New York City *1984: University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

*1987:

Kingsborough Community College Kingsborough Community College (KBCC) is a public community college in Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system and the only community college in Brooklyn.Meridian Community College Meridian Community College is a Public college, public community college in Meridian, Mississippi. Founded in 1937, it was originally named Meridian Junior College but changed its name in 1987. History Founded in 1937 as the "13th" and "14th" ...

, Casteel Gallery,

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Missis ...

*1996: Horne-Marshall Gallery, Meridian, Mississippi *1997: White Box Gallery, Fred Mitchell Recent Works; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania *1998: Fred Mitchell, Gallery X, New York *2003: David Findlay Jr. Gallery, 'Fred Mitchell', New York *2005: Noel Fine Art, 'Fred Mitchell: New York Harbor Scenes', Bronxville, New York *2007: Joyce Goldstein Gallery, 'Modernism Into Abstraction: Fred Mitchell 1940-1949', Chatham, New York

Selected group exhibitions

*1945: "Soldier Art" National Army Arts Contest,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of cha ...

Washington, D.C. *1946–1949:

Detroit Institute of Art The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project complet ...

Detroit, MI Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

*1953, 1954: "New York Painting and Sculpture Annual," Stable Gallery, New York City *1954–1955: "Young American Painters," circ., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City *1955: "Vanguard Artists," Walker Arts Center,

Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

*1956, 1960: "The Founding Five," Tanager Gallery, New York City *1958: "Young American Painters," Rome-New York Foundation, Rome, Italy *1961:

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established ...

*1962: "Museum of Modern Art in Embassies,"

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...

, Philippines *1967: "Art in American Embassies Abroad," U.S.

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

*1968: "Will Insley, Fred Mitchell and Steve Poleskie," A D White Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York *1974: "Nine Artists, Coenties Slip,"

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, Downtown, NY *1975: "Paintings and Watercolors," Hunterdon Art Center, Clinton, NJ *1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1983: Buecker & Harpsichords Gallery, NY *1980–1982: "New York Painting," Landmark Gallery, New York City *1985: "The Gathering of the Avant-Garde: The Lower East Side, 1948–1970," Kenkaleba House Gallery, New York City *1990: ULAE Gallery," Waterworks", New York, NY *1998: Gallery X, "Revelations", Harlem, NY *1999: Katherina Rich Perlow Gallery, "The Abstract Tradition: Fred Mitchell, John Ferren, Stephen Pace, John Grillo", New York, NY *2004: The Rockford Art Museum, "Reuniting An Era: Abstract Expressionists of The 1950s", Rockford, IL *2007: Hackett Freedman Gallery, "A Culture in the Making: New York and San Francisco in the 1950s", San Francisco, CA *2008: Robert Miller Gallery, "Beyond The Canon: Small Works in American Abstraction 1945–1965", New York, NY

Notes

References

*United States. Army Service Forces. Special Service Division.; National Gallery of Art (US)
''Soldier art''
(

ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

Infantry Journal, ©1945. *Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
''Younger American painters; a selection (from the exhibition held) May 12 to July 25, 1954 (in) the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum''
(The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1954.) p. 32 *Tanager Gallery
''Paintings and sculpture''
(New York, 1956.) *Franz Kline; Fred Mitchell; Albert Boime; New York (State); State University at Binghamton; University Art Gallery, Neuberger Museum
''Franz Kline: the early works as signals. Selected and organized by Fred Mitchell''
(Binghamton, N. Y. State University of New York, 1977.) *Charles Le Clair
''The art of watercolor''
(New York : Watson-Guptill Publications, 1994.) p. 84-85 *Marika Herskovic
''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,''
(New York School Press, 2000.) p. 32; 38; 250–253; *Melville Price, Perle Fine, Robert Richenburg, Michael West, Fred Mitchell, Yvonne Thomas
''Abstract expressionism: second to none : six artists of the New York school''
(Chicago : Thomas McCormick Gallery, 2001.) p. 10-11 *Mary Abbott, Janice Biala, Fritz Bultman, Perle Fine, Fred Mitchell, Melville Price, Robert Richenburg, Yvonne Thomas
''Abstract expressionism: second to none : eight artists of the New York school''
(Chicago : Thomas McCormick Gallery, ©2004.) p. 14-15 *April Kingsley, John Corbett, Jim Dempsey, Thomas McCormick, Georgia Museum of Art
''Suitcase paintings : small scale Abstract Expressionism''
(Chicago, Ill. : Art Enterprises : TMG Projects, ©2007.) p. 45
''Smithsonian Institution Research Information System; Archival, Manuscript and Photographic Collections, Fred Mitchell''

External links

Fred Mitchell papers in the Archives of American Art
Smithsonian Institution
Fred Mitchell paintings
from Askart.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Fred Abstract expressionist artists Modern painters Artists from New York City Artists from Mississippi Carnegie Mellon University alumni Cranbrook Academy of Art alumni Columbia University alumni Art Students League of New York faculty People from Meridian, Mississippi Military personnel from Mississippi 1923 births 2013 deaths