Etel Adnan

中文

San Gimignano

Beijing

Les Moulins

Habana

Roma

Sao Paulo

Paris

Etel Adnan: working with the potential of color

Etel Adnan, born in Beirut in 1925, is a Lebanese-American poet, essayist and visual artist, who has inspired the contemporary generation thanks, in part, to her unique approach and multi-faceted use and relationship with colour.
She is considered one of the most iconic  artists in the Arab intellectual diaspora as well as a pioneer of women’s rights all over the world.
Etel Adnan’s career has ranged over a wide variety of works, including drawing, film, painting and ceramics. She is also an author of poetry and prose, where she often addressed difficult political situations like the Vietnam War and Lebanese War. Throughout the years she has incorporated in her practise a Leperello or Japanese folding concertina book technique, presenting colourful or monochrome landscapes and compositions. She passed away on 14 November, 2021.

In her work, Etel Adnan, painted landscapes in which she embraced a new concept, refusing traditional cultural references, media and techniques, favouring a composition that is based on scenery, devoid of human figures, but is representative of the beauty of the universe and the intense bond she has with it; her paintings executed with clear, confident strokes.
Through her works and throughout her career, Etel Adnan asked herself and her viewers the question: “Do colours have the power to break the time barrier, and carry us into outer spaces, not only those made of miles and distances, but those of the accumulated experiences of life since its beginning or unbeginning?” .

Artists

Adel Abdessemed Etel Adnan Ai Weiwei Leila Alaoui Juan Araujo Kader Attia Barbana Bojadzi Daniel Buren Cai Guo-Qiang Alejandro Campins Iván Capote Yoan Capote Loris Cecchini Elizabet Cerviño Chen Zhen Nikhil Chopra Marcelo Cidade Carlos Cruz-Diez Jonathas de Andrade Berlinde De Bruyckere Leandro Erlich Carlos Garaicoa Osvaldo González Antony Gormley Gu Dexin Shilpa Gupta Subodh Gupta Carsten Höller Eva Jospin JR Ilya & Emilia Kabakov Zhanna Kadyrova Kan Xuan Anish Kapoor André Komatsu Jannis Kounellis Julio Le Parc Luis López-Chávez Jorge Macchi Ahmed Mater Cildo Meireles José Mesías Sabrina Mezzaqui Moataz Nasr Rudi Ninov Giovanni Ozzola Ornaghi & Prestinari Hans Op de Beeck Michelangelo Pistoletto Susana Pilar Qiu Zhijie Tobias Rehberger Arcangelo Sassolino Manuela Sedmach Serse Kiki Smith Nedko Solakov Marta Spagnoli José Antonio Suárez Londoño Hiroshi Sugimoto Sun Yuan & Peng Yu Ana Maria Tavares Pascale Marthine Tayou Armando Testa Nari Ward Sislej Xhafa José Yaque Zhuang Hui

Etel Adnan: working with the potential of color

Artists