“I try to eliminate clichés, extraneous material,” the Chicago-born artist Joan Mitchell once explained. “I try to make it exact. My painting is not an allegory or a story. It is more like a poem.” Mitchell’s large Abstract Expressionist works were often inspired by poetry, and are similarly instinctual, gestural, and precise. In fact, she worked on projects with the poets Frank O’Hara and Jacques Dupin. In this retrospective, paintings, pastels, and works on paper from Mitchell’s early years in 1950s New York, as well as mature works from her time in France, are on display. —E.C.