Known for her gestural style, Joan Mitchell was a key member of the second generation of American Abstract Expressionists and is now among the leading market forces in the 20th century. She was unique among her contemporaries, having gained acclaim in the early 1950s at a time when recognition of women artists was sparse. Despite the critical attention, Mitchell’s oeuvre has long been undervalued next to the work of her male peers.

As the market exhausts its run with Mitchell's New York school contemporaries, she is now being reevaluated as one of the last artists of the Ab-Ex generation yet to be fully explored, according to curators of her upcoming retrospective. From 2007 to 2019, her auction turnover has increased by 123% from $28 million in annual sales to $62.6 million. Her record price has followed that trend with an increase of 130% from $7 million achieved in 2007 to $16.6 million in 2018. With the rise in prices, the volume of Mitchell's works traded at auction has also increased 130% since 2007.