In conjunction with Roscoe Mitchell’s music performance on Friday of Chinati Weekend, MAINTENANT presents 29 vibrant new paintings by the legendary composer and performer. These delightfully playful, jubilantly colorful canvases sport various repeated motifs and themes, custodians of codes and keys, time keepers and ticket takers, persona called “the fortune teller.” Alongside these imagistic works, interpenetrating them as well, are all sorts of approaches to abstraction, from organic masses of circles that might recall Aboriginal art and warped checkerboards to more rigidly structured geometry and color sequences. 

Roscoe Mitchell (b. 1940) has been a leading figure in the performing arts for over 50 years. Born and raised in Chicago, Mitchell formed the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in 1966, featuring Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors. He has been painting since 1963, continuing intermittently through the heyday of the Art Ensemble and a hyperproductive sequence of decades of solo music, improvised encounters, and music for Mitchell-led ensembles.

Special thanks to the City of Marfa for their generous support.