Fred Mitchell, 1923-2013

Paintings and works on paper from the estate of Fred Mitchell are available. Philip Douglas Fine Art has exhibited and sold Mitchell's work since 1998 and has worked closely his estate 2013 to present placing his work in private &n public collections.

Fred Mitchell had a long and influential career as a painter & painting instructor from 1942 until he died in 2013. It continues to the present  through his estate. Between 1940-1947 he won scholarships to Carnegie Tech and Cranbrook Academy and served in the US military during WWII; later in 1956 well into his painting career he returned to Cranbrook to finish his masters degree. In '47 he was awarded a cash prize for a national Pepsi Cola artist contest and used the money to travel to Europe settling for two years in Rome and taking a studio near the Coliseum. Returning to the USA in early '51 he settled in lower Manhattan and opened several studios including a large loft on Coenties Slip in 1954. There he became known as part of a legendary group of artists that followed later, who also opened lofts on "The Slip'. In 1952 Mitchell along with Angelo Ippolito came up with an idea to form a cooperative gallery of invited artists and brought in artists Lois Dodd, William King, Charles Cajori who together co-founded Tanager Gallery on East 4th Street later moving it to east 10th Street where from '52 to '62 it became an influential gallery for many artists early shows. In 1953 FM was invited by Guggenheim Museum head curator James Johnson Sweeney to exhibit in Younger American Painters an early influential museum exhibition about abstract painting. 

During his life Mitchell participated in a broad selection of prominent gallery & museum exhibitions around the world including Tanager Gallery, Stable Gallery, Howard Wise Gallery, The Museum of Modern Art's traveling exhibits 'Art In Embassies' program, The Whitney Museum (Artist's of Coenties Slip), Roko Gallery, Then Museo del Arte Moderna (Rome), The National Academy, The National Gallery of Art Washington DC,The Walker Arts Center, The Carnegie Institute, U. of Mississippi Art Museum, Robert Miller Gallery, David Findlay Jr. and too many altogether to list. His legacy is set as a well known painter & participant in The New York School of Abstract Expressionism.

Fred Mitchell (1923-2013)