Titled George Went Swimming at Barnes Hole, but It Got Too Cold and completed in 1957, the painting is a major exemplar of Joan Mitchell’s late-1950s abstraction. Joan Mitchell, George Went Swimming at Barnes Hole, but It Got Too Cold, 1957, oil on canvas, 87 3⁄4 × 78 1⁄4'. The artist has signed her first initial and last name: J. At the very bottom of the picture, yet another cluster of predominantly oblique gestures form a rough wedge, drawing the eye to the lower right. Also on the right, a bit farther down, dozens of brushstrokes have again been layered one atop the other, creating a diagonal band.

Clustered in a roughly horizontal zone, this array tapers to either side but is both extended and visually weighted toward the right. Just below this upright element, there appears a dense flurry of multicolored gestures. In the upper register, just left of center, overlapping brushstrokes in shades of red, black, blue-green, and yellow combine to form a thick vertical line, as if marking out the operative axis. Painted on a white ground, the composition reveals numerous areas in which white paint has been energetically brushed over marks in other colors, progressively editing a roiling chaos of gestures down to a sparer, more defined structure with several especially prominent elements. THE CANVAS IS LARGE, standing more than seven feet tall and six feet wide.

Photo: Joan Mitchell and Rudy Burckhardt.

Joan Mitchell working on Bridge, 1957, in her studio, 60 Saint Marks Place, New York, 1957.

Joan Mitchell by Patricia Albers