Joan Mitchell painted East Ninth Street for an exhibition at the Sidney Janis Gallery, which showed avant-garde works by artists such as Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, and Jackson Pollock, among others. Mitchell’s title may refer to the street where she had her first studio in New York, as well as the Ninth Street Exhibition, a landmark for Abstract Expressionist painting curated by critic Clement Greenberg in 1951.
Greenwich Village was the heart of a close yet contentious art community in the 1940s–50s, anchored by the Eighth Street Club (“The Club”), a loft for round- table and panel discussions, and the Cedar Tavern, where artists and critics socialized. Mitchell was one of the few women permitted to join The Club and served as an advocate for other female painters.
Wall label, 2021.
