By some fortuitous coincidence just a
few steps separate «Joan Mitchell: The
Last Paintings» at Cheim & Read from «Matta: A Centennial Celebration» at Pace Gallery and each show explosively refutes any notion of youthfulness being the province of the young while giving new life to the
phenomenon known as «old age style» — used to distinguish formal characteristic of late works by Titian, Rembrandt, or Cézanne, where the artist just wants to get to the heart of the matter and sloughs off all the fine finish he had needed to impress his audience
in earlier
years.