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ETEL ADNAN
About the Artist
Etel Adnan (b. 1925, Beirut, Lebanon – d. 2021, Paris, France) lived and worked between Beirut, California and Paris.
An acclaimed multimedia artist, writer, poet, intellectual, shaman and activist, Adnan is widely recognised as a pioneer of modern and contemporary Lebanese art. She read philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, followed by studies at UC Berkeley and Harvard. She also taught philosophy of art and aesthetics at Dominican College, California. Adnan was the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, including the Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest cultural honour.
The artist began her career as a writer, inspired to take up the pen in protest at the Vietnam war: she was a fervent pacifist throughout her life. In 1972, she became cultural editor for the newspapers Al Safa and L’Orient-Le Jour in Beirut. When the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975, she witnessed senseless deaths, kidnappings and monstrous torture.
Adnan returned to California in 1979, settling in Sausalito with her partner, Syrian sculptor Simone Fattal. She began to take inspiration from vast Californian and Lebanese mountainous landscapes, imbuing her paintings with memories of both the recent and distant past. Her painterly process involved laying a canvas on a table, applying paint directly from the tube and using a palette knife to spread it across the surface, creating forms with deliberate and confident movements. Her simple geometric compositions of boldly juxtaposed hues embrace colour and abstract imagination.
Image: © The Estate of Etel Adnan / © ADAGP / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co. / Photo Fabrice Gibert
IN THE COLLECTION
Etel Adnan, "Sky Blue", c. 1970
Gouache and mixed media on paper, 41 x 33 cm
Courtesy the Estate of Etel Adnan
Sky Blue (c. 1970) is an early work on paper, more lyrical in appearance than her tightly composed paintings. Depicting an explosive blue sky, the composition shows the artist’s freedom of hand and is reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism in its espousal of the role of chance and the many possible interpretations of meaning it offers.
Etel Adnan, "Untitled", c. 1980
Ink and coloured crayon on paper, in folding card booklet, folded: 10 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm; Unfolded: 57 x 10.6 cm
Courtesy the Estate of Etel Adnan
Through her work with leporellos from the 1960s Adnan discovered a medium that allowed her to negotiate between her two passions: writing and the visual arts. Untitled (c. 1980) holds within its concertina-style pages an abundance of her famous abstract mountain landscapes. She described the process of painting across the pages as ‘writing a river’. Untitled presents limitless potential for artistic expression, yet is ultimately contained, folded within the pages of the accordion book.
Etel Adnan, "Untitled", 2019
Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm
Courtesy the Estate of Etel Adnan and Galerie Lelong & Co.
The painting Untitled (2019) is one of the myriad works by Adnan to be inspired by Mount Tamalpais and the mountain ranges of Sausalito, California. They captivated her and became almost an avatar of her spirit and her connection with cosmic forces. Adnan’s chosen palette of earthy tones and the variations in light and form she achieved with it attest to her drive to experiment and her great talent as a colourist.
Etel Adnan, "Untitled", 2019
Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm
Courtesy the Estate of Etel Adnan and Callicoon Fine Arts
Untitled (2019), painted the same year, reveals a radically abstract artist. The work adopts a minimalist approach to landscape: a striking central form in a deep green commands attention, surrounded by the marks of decisive movements of the palette knife from each side of the canvas. The composition teases the viewer by hinting at a vast landscape, indicating Adnan’s extraordinary ability to convey boundless scenes within the constraints of deliberately small dimensions.