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Lot Essay
‘Colours exist for me as entities in themselves, as metaphysical beings, like the attributes of God exist as metaphysical entities.’ - Etel Adnan
Painted in 2003, this stunningly elemental colour field abstract composition comprising concentric patterns formed by a succession of radiant shapes using a palette knife to apply thick impasto in firm swipes across the canvas gives the surface a spatial dimension, evoking natural beauty and inner landscape of Etel Adnan’s heart and mind. Despite its unassuming size and minimalist style, this painting is a compelling visualization of memory and momentary perception of our surroundings. It exudes vitality reminiscent of the solid blocks of colour found in the landscapes of Nicolas de Staël. The horizon and sky are depicted as square or triangular masses in rich, undiluted hues with floating circular forms suggestive of the sun, sea, or sand. Distilled into definitive features of a unified sensory experience immutably referencing Adnan’s time spent living within the landscapes of Beirut and California, these elements harken back to the chromatic interplay of light and shadow in avant-garde art.
Etel Adnan's life stands out for its rich tapestry of cultural influences. Born in Beirut to a Greek Christian mother and Syrian Muslim father, Adnan lived and studied in Lebanon, the United States, and France, speaking French, Arabic, English, and Greek. From 1958 to 1972, she taught philosophy of art at the Dominican University of California. Throughout her life spanning almost a century as one of the leading voices in contemporary Middle Eastern art and literature, Adnan expressed her phenomenal creative and intellectual prowess in many ways. Apart from being a visual artist, she gained renown as a celebrated poet and academic, a prominent journalist, and the author of a seminal novel about the Arab world.
Adnan’s solo exhibition has been held in institutions across the world, including at Serpentine, London; Pera Art Museum, Istanbul; Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; MUDAM, Luxembourg; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern; and Institut de Monde Arabe, Paris. Her work has also been featured in numerous international art exhibitions, including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE; Whitney Biennial, New York; and Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany. Adnan received many honours for her contributions to the field of art and culture, including the Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest cultural honour, in 2014. The same year, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha dedicated a retrospective exhibition to Adnan curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
Painted in 2003, this stunningly elemental colour field abstract composition comprising concentric patterns formed by a succession of radiant shapes using a palette knife to apply thick impasto in firm swipes across the canvas gives the surface a spatial dimension, evoking natural beauty and inner landscape of Etel Adnan’s heart and mind. Despite its unassuming size and minimalist style, this painting is a compelling visualization of memory and momentary perception of our surroundings. It exudes vitality reminiscent of the solid blocks of colour found in the landscapes of Nicolas de Staël. The horizon and sky are depicted as square or triangular masses in rich, undiluted hues with floating circular forms suggestive of the sun, sea, or sand. Distilled into definitive features of a unified sensory experience immutably referencing Adnan’s time spent living within the landscapes of Beirut and California, these elements harken back to the chromatic interplay of light and shadow in avant-garde art.
Etel Adnan's life stands out for its rich tapestry of cultural influences. Born in Beirut to a Greek Christian mother and Syrian Muslim father, Adnan lived and studied in Lebanon, the United States, and France, speaking French, Arabic, English, and Greek. From 1958 to 1972, she taught philosophy of art at the Dominican University of California. Throughout her life spanning almost a century as one of the leading voices in contemporary Middle Eastern art and literature, Adnan expressed her phenomenal creative and intellectual prowess in many ways. Apart from being a visual artist, she gained renown as a celebrated poet and academic, a prominent journalist, and the author of a seminal novel about the Arab world.
Adnan’s solo exhibition has been held in institutions across the world, including at Serpentine, London; Pera Art Museum, Istanbul; Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; MUDAM, Luxembourg; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern; and Institut de Monde Arabe, Paris. Her work has also been featured in numerous international art exhibitions, including the Sharjah Biennial, UAE; Whitney Biennial, New York; and Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany. Adnan received many honours for her contributions to the field of art and culture, including the Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest cultural honour, in 2014. The same year, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha dedicated a retrospective exhibition to Adnan curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.