Existing on the Edge of Language

 

 

 

'Mitchell's work exists on the edge of language' - David Ross, London, 2011

 

John Mitchell was a highly respected artist, sculptor and tutor, with much of his work abstract and based on proportional systems, with geometrics and the Fibonacci series being consistent motifs found within his work.

Cornish based yet with an international following, he honed his craft in his idyllic home and studio with views over Newlyn Harbour. He was born and brought up in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and trained at Kingston College of Art, where he demonstrated a natural aptitude for observation and spatial awareness. His fellow student, John Carter, remembers his awe at a still life by Mitchell, which emphasised the glowing cuboid space of the table on which highly generalised objects were placed.

 

 

 

During the 1960's, Mitchell began to use the Fibonacci sequence to influence his work with bulk colours, often dried pigments, filling precisely measured voids with such vibrancies as cobalt blue, red ochre, indigo and burnt sienna. A passage from Samuel Beckett's Molloy, 'I had four ways of wearing my shirt...'  added inspiration, encouraging Mitchell to play with similar motifs whilst developing as many variations as possible, which is evident within his 'Frustum and Fillers' series, with multiple variations of paintings and sculpture in both wood and bronze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout his career, Mitchell shared his knowledge and practice by lecturing and teaching, firstly at Coventry College of Art, then at Stourbridge College of Art alongside lifelong friend, Barrie Cook, as well as being course director of the M.A Fine Art Course at Birmingham Polytechnic followed by Senior Fellow in Fine-Art at Cardiff College of Art.

 

David Ross, fellow artist and sculptor who exhibited with Mitchell in the 1994 exhibition ‘Bronze Works’ at Wimbledon School of Art described his works as ‘existing on the edge of language… It is the passion to find something rather than explain it, to let a set of visual conditions grow and change though the combination of the highly ordered alongside the intuited which is the hallmark of John Mitchell’s achievement’. This is no more evident than within Mitchell’s beguiling works with the Fibonacci sequence or his frustum bronzes, which at times interact with each other, whilst others act as a void within the bronze itself; the appearance could be mistaken for that of a Ben Nicholson painting being brought to life.

 

Precise, measured and controlled, Mitchell’s works at first glance project a level of minimalism and a reductive character, but it is this subtlety mixed with his geometric motifs that conjure up form and allow play with space and light.

This sale showcases a lifetime of Mitchell’s work. It unites the worlds of mathematics and art, exploring a language without words. Lay’s are proud to bring this artist's work back into the public realm for fresh eyes to enjoy once more.