Etel Adnan

Etel Adnan was a painter and a well-known poet, novelist, and playwright. Her multidisciplinary and influential practice reflected her international life in the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. After years of writing and academic work, Adnan started painting after moving to America and settling in California in 1955.

Adnan saw California’s Mount Tamalpais every day from her window and was fascinated by it, just as Paul Cézanne had been by the Sainte-Victoire Mountain. Adnan paints with forceful gestures, using a palette knife to apply thick daubs of color. These paintings of her beloved mountain, of which ‘Untitled’ (2017) is an example, were created from memory, but the view’s peaks, horizon, and sun remain easily identifiable. Oscillating between figuration and abstraction, the radical simplification of forms allows Adnan to formulate the very essence of what she perceives. In these small poetic works, she silently expresses her longing for and love of nature.

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