Portraits of George Eliot and Frida Kahlo

Nancy Mitchnick

‘

E S

J O

personality, the scale of her paintings
also expanded dramatically over time.
Describing the creation of a painting that
recently won a prestigious award from
New York’s American Academy of Arts
and Letters, Mitchnick says, “I was making
small paintings, and I did not like them
very much. Somebody renting my studio
had a 51-by-99-inch stretcher, so I tried
that. I don’t know how long it would have
taken me to figure that size out, but I made
the painting of the big orange building on
that.”
In 2015 she painted the now-distressed
house in which she grew up, at 13757
Buffalo St., on her current favorite size can-
vas, 99-by-88 inches.
“My work is visual, it has a visual lan-
guage,” she says. “It took me all that time
to figure out I was not interested in these
big pictures — I was interested in these
houses. It was sort of romantic. I felt I was
the last person to really care about these
houses.”
Mitchnick has received a Guggenheim
Fellowship, a Pollock Krasner Foundation
grant and a National Endowment for the
Arts award. Most recently she was a recipi-
ent of the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award
at Harvard College and the Kresge Arts
Visual Arts Fellowship.

Despite all of this recognition, Mitchnick
continues to aim for what she consid-
ers perfection in her work — she often
repaints over works, even those she cre-
ated years ago and can go through 3,000
brushes in a week trying to create the
perfect (and clean) color. Although her
work has evolved, what remains the same
is the evocative emotion expressed through
texture and color.
“I get to the colors by trial and error,” she
says. “My criteria are an inevitability. If it
changes, it needs to change. I can’t explain
how I know — but when it is wrong, I feel
annoyed.
“Those very beautiful colors come from
very good paint, so I’m doing trial and
error at $90 a tube.”
“Nancy is a creative force who fearlessly
explores every corner of her imagination
and the canvas,” says Jens Hoffmann,
MOCAD senior curator at large. “Her
paintings are both subtle and poetic yet
wild, gestural and violent. There is no
escape for the viewer — they seduce the
audience with their opulent colors, their
forceful marks and vigorous lines.”

*

Elyse Foltyn is co-chair of Museum of
Contemporary Art Detroit and blogger of
SurvivorsStill.com

PRO D UC
E

Gourmet Market

Joe Says...
Get Your Grill On

Kick off a tasty summer with
grilling favorites

t%FMJHIUGBNJMZBOEGSJFOETXJUIQVSF IPVTFNBEF
 CFFGCSBUT 64QSJNFDIPJDFCFFGHSPVOEUIBU
 EBZ BOEUIFGSFTIFTUTBMNPO UJMBQJB DPEBOENPSF
t.BLFUIFCFTUCVSHFSTBOETBOEXJDIFTXJUI
 IPNFNBEFSPMMTBOEMPBWFTGSPN"SUPG#SFBECZ
 +PFT QFSDFOUBEEJUJWFGSFF
t$PNQMFUFZPVSUBCMFXJUIDPPLPVUGBWPSJUFT MJLF
 IPVTFNBEFQPUBUPTBMBEBOECBLFECFBOT QMVT
 UIFGSFTIFTUDPSOPOUIFDPCBSPVOE
t5PBTUUPTVNNFSXJUIBXJEFTFMFDUJPOPGCFFS
 BOEXJOF
t"OEEPOUGPSHFUUIFDVTUPNNBEFEFTTFSUT

So different from the big supermarkets –
Joe’s is truly your neighborhood market with
experts who are obsessed with your satisfaction.

Explore Joe’s Produce Gourmet Market
+PFT.FBU4FBGPPEt"SUPG#SFBEt+PFT(PVSNFU$BUFSJOH

Six Mile Road and Buffalo Street

$BMMUPPSEFSPSGPSNPSFJOGPSNBUJPO
84FWFO.JMF3PBE -JWPOJB .*

June 16 • 2016

2087390

45