Fred Mitchell Art

Fred Mitchell is included in the book New York School Abstract Expressionists. He was an important New York City artist in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Mitchell was born in Mississippi and was known as a gifted Abstract Expressionist painter. In 1943, Mitchell was drafted into the US Army. After the war, Mitchell attended Cranbrook Academy for two years where he further studied and practiced an advanced Modernist/Regionalist style of painting. After some travel around Europe, Mitchell settled in Rome for three years. There he met several American painters including Angelo Ippolito and John Heliker, who were older and working in a more advanced Expressionist painting style. This made a large influence on Mitchell's work. In 1951, Mitchell moved to New York City and became one of the first painters to open a painting studio in downtown Manhattan. Mitchell started an art school in the old Seaman's Church Institute in the seaport area along the East River known as Coenties Slip. Coenties Slip consisted of old, large, and cheap cold water lofts. During the ensuing years, other artists moved nearby including Ellsworth Kelly (introduced to the area by Mitchell in 1954), Robert Indiana, Agnes Martin, Jack Albert Youngerman and James Rosenquist. Mitchell's first New York solo show was at Tanager Gallery in 1952 with solo exhibitions also in 1954 and 1960. Over its 10 year history, Tanager Gallery showed most of the best painters and sculptors including older masters Philip Guston, Adolph Frederick Ad Reinhardt, Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Philip Pavia and became an important platform for showing and introducing many new artists including early showings by Jasper Johns, Milton Ernest Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, Alex Katz, Philip Pearlstein, Bill King, Helen Frankenthaler, Norman Bluhm and many others. In 1954, Mitchell's oil painting, Black White and Red, was included in the landmark Guggenheim Museum show, 'Younger American Painters'. Curated by James Johnson Sweeney, the exhibition traveled to the Dallas Museum of Art and Detroit Museum. In 1953 and 1954, Mitchell was included in the prestigious, 'Stable Gallery Annual Exhibition'. In 1955, Mitchell returned to Cranbrook Academy to teach for several years while also exhibiting in New York and Cleveland as well as traveling back to Positano, Italy. During the mid to late 50s, Mitchell exhibited at Howard Wise Gallery in Cleveland. Wise opened a second gallery in 1960 in New York City, and Mitchell had two solo shows there.