Portrait of John Egner
Artist
Nancy Mitchnick
(American, born 1947)
Date1973
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions42 × 37 in. (106.7 × 94 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of John Egner, 2009
Object numberUAC3929
DescriptionUnapologetically, Nancy Mitchnick paints about content that drives her. Mitchnick's work is physical, made with energy, intuition, and honest emotion, which altogether creates a perfect storm to capture viewers. Through visual language, Mitchnick speaks to us loud and clear. Using painting as a vessel, she's telling us stories, narratives, giving us a taste of history in addition to exposing us to new insights about the different people, places, and things that are relative to her life.Born and raised in Detroit, Mitchnick attended Cass Technical High School Performing Art's Program, and then proceeded to study art at Wayne State University receiving her B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1972) and working on graduate studies until 1973. During her time in University, she was tightly involved in early evolutions of the Willis Gallery, even serving as a secretary for the initial organizing meetings and having several group and individual exhibitions in the space. Some of her works featured in the Willis Gallery were expressionist portraits of other early members of the "Willis Tribe" (otherwise known as the famous Cass Corridor artists) such as Ellen Phelan, Sam Wagstaff, and Gordon Newton.
Like her paintings, Mitchnick's personal history tells quite a colorful tail of its own. After her time at WSU, Nancy moved to New York and taught at Hunter College while raising her daughter and holding various jobs such as being a taxi driver, working at an after-hours joint, and assisting the artist Brice Marden. Through many evolutions of her life and her work, Mitchnick taught at the California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, as well as Harvard University. She received a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts, a grant from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, a Visual Arts Fellowship from the Kresge Arts in Detroit Foundation, and was recently selected by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as a recipient of their 2016 Art Awards.
Mitchnick's portrait of John Egner was created during her early 20's while she was attending Wayne State University. Egner was a very influential professor at WSU in the '60s and '70s and considered one of the unofficial spokespeople of the Cass Corridor art movement. He's depicted by Mitchnick with thick, straight-forward painterly strokes of blue, yellow, orange, green, with hints of red.
Text by Emily Lane Borden
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