This course centers around the Chicago-born, New York-and-Paris-based, artist Joan Mitchell (1925 – 1992), who will be the subject of a centennial symposium in October 2025 jointly organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Student in this class will learn about Mitchell’s life and work through the close study of her paintings and works on paper, gaining a foundation in the methods of object-based learning and applied art historical research of the sort practiced in museums. Together, we will survey the state of the scholarly field on Mitchell and conduct a critical review of her literature and recent exhibitions. We will also consider Mitchell’s early upbringing in Chicago—her exposure to works on view at the Art Institute during her teenage years, her training at the School of the Art Institute and Ox-Bow School of Art, her immersion in the activities of the Poetry Foundation—and interrogate where and how these experiences may and may not be germane to an understanding of her work. Finally, the course will allow students to participate in the early phases of exhibition making, such as proposing and refining the scope and thesis of an exhibition, and the research and development of a checklist.