Samuel Beckett’s brush with the other Mitchell: Painterly Techniques in ‘One Evening’
This paper explores Samuel Beckett's creative relationship with the painter, Joan Mitchell. Through an analysis of Beckett's short text ‘One Evening’ (1980) and Mitchell's painting Tondo (1991), it explores the influence these artists had on each other's work. By drawing comparis...
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| Published in: | Journal of Beckett studies 2018, Vol.27 (2), p.175 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | This paper explores Samuel Beckett's creative relationship with the painter, Joan Mitchell. Through an analysis of Beckett's short text ‘One Evening’ (1980) and Mitchell's painting Tondo (1991), it explores the influence these artists had on each other's work. By drawing comparisons between their aesthetic approaches to their respective medium, it suggests that Beckett's self-reflexive, ambiguous, and carefully coloured late text shares similarities with the work Mitchell was producing around the same time. It uses art historical scholarship and close textual analysis to show how, in some instances, their creative processes reflects that of Paul Cézanne. Beckett's late style is seen as not simply becoming darker, but, like Mitchell's canvases, fluctuates between light and dark, colour and monochrome. The paper proposes that through their considered use of colour both Beckett and Mitchell's work intensifies rather than alleviates the essential tension that drives their aesthetic thought. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-7811 1759-7811 |