Conversation: Joan Mitchell at 100—Six Paintings from Six Decades
@ The Art Institute of Chicago
111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Opening Thursday, October 23rd, from 6PM - 7PM
Marking the centennial of artist Joan Mitchell (born Chicago, 1925), this public conversation will offer a close look at the painter’s life and work through an analysis of six artworks spanning from the 1940s to the 1990s. The conversation features Sarah Roberts, Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Joan Mitchell Foundation and co-curator of the 2022 retrospective of Mitchell’s work, who will be joined by the Art Institute’s Caitlin Haskell, Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art and director of Ray Johnson Collections and research.
This in-depth discussion serves as the keynote address of the Joan Mitchell Centennial Symposium, a scholarly convening honoring Mitchell as one of the 20th century’s most innovative abstract artists and introducing new critical thinking about her extraordinary life and career. There is no more fitting place for this centennial celebration than Chicago, the city where she was first introduced to modern art and devoted herself to a life of painting.
About the Speakers
Sarah Roberts joined the Joan Mitchell Foundation in June 2024 as Senior Director of Curatorial Affairs. She previously served as the J. Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), where she organized exhibitions and directed research initiatives on the museum’s permanent collection for 20 years. In 2021, she curated Joan Mitchell, a major retrospective organized with Katy Siegel and the Baltimore Museum of Art for which she also co-authored and co-edited the exhibition catalogue. Other exhibitions include Amy Sherald: American Sublime (currently on tour); SFMOMA’s presentation of Frank Bowling: The New York Years, (2023); and Robert Rauschenberg: Erasing the Rules (2017).
Caitlin Haskell serves as the Gary C. and Frances Comer Senior Curator in Modern and Contemporary Art and director of Ray Johnson Collections and research at the Art Institute of Chicago. An expert on the art and criticism of the historical avant-gardes, she joined the Art Institute in 2018. Haskell’s recent exhibitions and catalogues include, among others, Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship with Mary Reynolds (2025), Remedios Varo: Science Fictions (2023), Cezanne (2022), Ray Johnson c/o (2021), and René Magritte: The Fifth Season (2018).
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Tags: Caitlin Haskell, Chicago, Joan Mitchell, Joan Mitchell at 100—Six Paintings from Six Decades, Loop, Sarah Roberts, The Art Institute of Chicago
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