Blue Territory

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What to expect

A poetic immersion into the life and art of Joan Mitchell, the great American abstract expressionist painter

A contemporary of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell is not as well known as her male counterparts, not only because she was a woman but also because she spent most of her working life in France. Still, in 2013 Bloomberg listed Mitchell as the best-selling female artist of all time.

When asked to talk about her paintings, Joan Mitchell often responded, “If I could say it in words, I’d write a book.” Here is her book. At once unique and universal, Blue Territory is at its core an exploration of love and life, and what it means to love—and live—what you do. Meticulously researched and lyrically written, it will appeal to anyone interested in passionate engagement with the world.

Critics Review

  • “Robin Lippincott’s affecting and intimate tribute to the painter, Joan Mitchell, is as fiercely felt, imaginative, fluid, and light-filled as her brushstrokes. He has erased the boundaries between Mitchell’s art and her life, capturing the quality of light, the saturation of color in her work as deftly as her originality, loneliness, and intensity. Blue Territory will open your eyes to the work of one remarkable artist, and to what art at its best can do.”

    Eleanor Morse, author of White Dog Fell from the Sky

  • “Robin Lippincott has an uncanny ability to convey just what he finds so compelling about Joan Mitchell—from her gutsy struggle to thrive in the male-dominated art world of the ’50s and ’60s, to her last valiant efforts to work while dying of lung cancer. Combining personal essay, biography, and a dash of fiction, Blue Territory freely imagines the artist’s interiority and boldly celebrates her life, hitting on deeper truths regarding artistic endeavor, the art of living, and the equally creative act of fandom.”

    Clifford Chase, author of The Tooth Fairy

  • “The title speaks to it…blue is her color. Blue is Joan Mitchell. This book evokes her spirit through a series of carefully chosen quotes and poignant ruminations. [It is] a biography that is elegantly written and more than a meditation. It’s glorious.”

    Alex Nyerges, director, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

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