Fred Mitchell co-founded the Tanager Gallery in 1952 and participated in other artist-run communities in New York, like those on Coenties Slip, that were foundational to the success of many emerging second-generation Abstract Expressionists. Mitchell also founded the Coenties Slip School of Art, holding classes from his loft that further contributed to the co-operative nature of the downtown art scene.

Mitchell was inspired by fellow artists he encountered at the Club and on Coenties Slip and artists he met while in Rome on a grant from Pepsi Cola. Michell developed a unique style that brought order to his explosive colors with careful, thin applications of oil paint. He was able to layer colorful forms in a way that added complexity to an otherwise flat surface.

Mitchell gained enough recognition to be invited to show at the Stable Gallery’s Annual for two consecutive years, in the Young American Painters exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in 1954, and in Nine Artists, Coenties Slip at the Whitney in 1974.