A signed limited lithograph by Joni Mitchell, gifted by Mitchell to her friend and album cover photographer Joel Bernstein.  The lithograph, titled Chair In The Sky, is a portrait of jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, and the image was included in the package for her 1979 album Mingus.  As Bernstein notes in his accompanying letter of authenticity, this print was made for Mitchell’s 1988 exhibition eclection, at the Parco Gallery in Tokyo, Japan.  It is hand signed in pencil by Joni Mitchell and numbered 79/125, and enclosed in its original folio, debossed in gold foil with the title eclection, with a custom tissue guard.

Joni has said about this image “I painted almost constantly for two days to do this portrait of Charles Mingus.  I had his features down, so the likeness was there, but there was no real emotion coming off.  I just kept pushing the paint around on the board, waiting for the right expression to appear, then suddenly there it was.  The emotion is a very complex one in a way.  I’m hesitant to say the emotions I think it embodies but if I were in his place, I think I know what he would have been feeling at that time in his life, and I think I’ve captured it.”

Mitchell gave Bernstein this print in December 1988.  Joel Bernstein photographed Joni Mitchell for the covers of her albums  For The Roses, Hejira, Shadows and Light and Songs of a Prairie Girl.  In mint condition; the only example we’ve seen.

Folio – 21 3/8″ x 14 1/2″   /   print – 20 1/8″ x 14 1/4″  /  image size – 9 1/2″ x 9 1/2″