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MITCHELL, Janet

Born
Medicine Hat, Alberta, 1912
Died
Calgary, Alberta, 1998
Biography synopsis
For the most part a self-taught artist, Janet Mitchell studied at night at the Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary and attended summer workshops at the Banff School of Fine Arts. She studied with Gordon Smith in Jasper and also attended the Emma Lake workshops in Saskatchewan in1960. She was mainly a watercolorist but also worked in oil. She was initially influenced by the landscapes of the Group of Seven as well as Emily Carr's work and later by Paul Klee and Marc Chagall whose works she viewed in New York in 1950. Mitchell exhibited in the 1948 "Calgary Group" exhibition, considered to be one of the first modernist painting exhibitions in Alberta. From 1949 she exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions in Calgary and Toronto. In 1962, she retired from her government job to devote herself to her art. Her work is held at the National Gallery of Canada as well as in some university collections. She was a member of the Alberta Society of Artists and Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.
Media used
Painting
Watercolour
Education
Banff School of Fine Arts, 1942 - ?
University of Saskatchewan, 1961 - ?
Calgary Institute of Technology and Art
Memberships
Alberta Society of Artists, 1945, 47, 50-52, 57, 61, 67-68, 71-98
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Calgary Group
File & Archive locations
Vancouver Public Library, BC - Fine Arts and History Department
Alberta Culture and Community Spirit - Arts Branch
Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
Artexte Information Centre, QC - Documentation Centre
Calgary Public Library, AB - Arts Department
Edmonton Art Gallery, AB - Library
London Public Library, ON
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, QC
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, QC - Media Centre
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
University of Calgary Library, AB
Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
Winnipeg Art Gallery, MA - Clara Lander Library
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
Glenbow Archives, AB - Main Catalogue
University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, ON
Esplanade Archives, Medicine Hat, AB
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
3rd International Contemporary Art Exhibition 1957: Delhi, Ahmedebad, Hyderabad, Calcutta, and Amritsar. New Delhi: Fine Arts and Crafts Society, 1957
Exhibition and Sale of Works by Leading Canadian Artists from Coast to Coast. Ottawa: National Council of Jewish Women of Canada, 1962
Armstrong, Peggy. Janet Mitchell, Life and Art. Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, 1990
Baker, Suzanne Devonshire. Artists of Alberta. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1980
Cochran, Bente Roed. "The Alberta Visual Arts Scene." Visual Arts Newsletter 3.1 (Winter 1981): 3-15
Glenbow Museum. Janet Mitchell: A Retrospective Exhibition. Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1977
Greenberg, Clement. "Clement Greenberg's View of Art on the Prairies." Canadian Art 20.2 (1984): 96
Heller, Jules and Nancy. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century. New York: Garland, 1995.
Hubbard, R. H. The National Gallery of Canada Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. Ottawa: Published for the Trustees by University of Toronto Press, 1957
LaViolette, Mary-Beth. Alberta Mistresses of the Modern, 1935-1975. Edmonton: Art Gallery of Alberta, 2012
Laviolette, Mary-Beth. "The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection." Artichoke 13.2 (Summer 2001): 16-23
MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009.
Masters Gallery. Janet Mitchell R.C.A.: A Celebration of Her Life and Art. Calgary: Masters Gallery, 1999
McMullen, W.B.. Alberta Art: Works from The Alberta Art Foundation. Edmonton: Alberta Art Foundation, 1975
National Gallery of Canada. First Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Painting, 1955. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1955
Reichwein, P. and K. Wall. Uplift: Visual Culture at the Banff School of Fine Arts Banff: Banff School of Fine Arts, 2020
Simpson, Jim. "Variety in Form highlights Exhibition: Exhibition by Women Artists." Edmonton Journal 17 Jan. 1979
Twardowski, Astrid. "Janet Mitchell at the Calgary Allied Arts Centre." Canadian Art 20 (1963): 205
Zimon, Kathy E. Alberta Society of Artists: The First Seventy Years Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2000

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