Etel Adnan

Découverte de l’immédiat

Eng. The paintings in the series Discovering the Immediate by Etel ADNAN, created during autumn 2021, are like windows open onto a world that the writer-and-artist has loved and evoked, both through her pen and with her paint brushes. Still lifes, trees and mountains are drawn with a single stroke of black color and bathe in the brilliant light of the white canvas.

Fr. Les peintures de la série Découverte de l’immédiat d’Etel ADNAN, réalisées à l’automne 2021, sont comme des fenêtres ouvertes sur ce monde que l’écrivaine-artiste a aimé et évoqué, tant par sa plume qu’avec ses pinceaux. Natures mortes, arbres et montagnes sont dessinés d’un seul trait à l’huile noire et baignent dans la lumière éclatante de la toile blanche.

More artworks

Born in Beirut in 1925 of a Greek mother and a Syrian father, she grew up in the Lebanese capital. In 1949 she went to study philosophy at the Paris Sorbonne and in 1955 continued her research at Berkeley University of California and at Harvard University in Cambridge.
Her artistic career began in 1960. Despite numerous exhibitions of her paintings and drawings in the US, in Europe and the Middle East, her work went unnoticed until 2012, where it was shown at the DOCUMENTA 13 in Kassel. Since then, important exhibitions have been dedicated to her at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2014), the Mathaf (Arab Museum of Modern Art) in Doha (2014), the IMMA of Dublin (2015), the Museum der Modern in Salzbourg (2015), the Serpentine Gallery in London (2016), the Moderna Museet in Malmö (2016), the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (2016), The Flag Art Foundation in New York (2017), MASS MoCA, Massachusetts (2018), SFMoMA, California (2018), Zentrum Paul Klee, Switzerland (2018), Aspen Museum of Art, Aspen, Colorado (2019), Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City (2019).

Personal Exhibitions (selection)
2022
Colour as Language, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tras la línea del horizonte, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife, Spain
Découverte de l’immédiat / Discovery of Immediacy, Galerie Lelong & Co. Paris & New York, France
& United States
2021
Impossible Homecoming, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Light’s New Measure, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, United States
2020
The uprising of colors, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Leporellos, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
2019
Etel Adnan, inks, drawings, leporello, curated by Michel Baudson, Alice Mogabgab – Brussels
Départ, Institute of Modern Art, Nuremberg, Germany
Etel Adnan et le Modernes, MUDAM, Luxemburg
Each Day is a Whole World, Aspen Museum of Art, Aspen, Colorado
2018
Etel Adnan: Life is a weaving – Tapisserie et estampes, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
Etel Adnan: New Work, SFMoMA, San Francisco, California
Etel Adnan, Zentrum Paul Klee, Lucerne, Switzerland
The Dazzling Gesture, Jan Michalski Foundation, Montricher, Switzerland
Etel Adnan: tout ce que je fais est mémoire, Chateau La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
A yellow sun A green sun a yellow sun A red sun a blue sun, MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts
2017
Tout arbre est un chant, Etel Adnan avec Houda Kassatly, Alice Mogabgab Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Album à Dessins, Biblioteca Central, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, Marseille, France
Etel Adnan: Sea and Fog, Oakville Galleries, Ontario, Canada
2016
Etel Adnan, Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Etel Adnan: The Weight of the World, Serpentine Galleries, London, England
2015
Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey – USA
IMMA, Dublin – IRLANDE
Galerie White Cube, Hong Kong.
Biennale de Sharjah, Sharjah art Museum – E.A.U.
Galerie Lelong, New-York -USA
Galerie Lelong, Paris – FRANCE
Museum der Moderne, Salzburg-AUTRICHE
2014
New Museum, New York – USA
Centre Européen d’actions artistiques contemporaines, Strasbourg – FRANCE
Mathaf, Doha – QATAR
Whitney Biennale, New-York – USA
Whitney Museum of American Art – USA
2013
Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens – GREECE
Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco – USA
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut – LIBAN
Galleria Continua, San Giminiano – ITALIE
2012
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg – ALLEMAGNE
2010
Europie Gallery, Paris – FRANCE
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut – LIBAN
2009
Bonnafont Gallery, San Francisco – USA
2007
Eileen Curtis Museum, Sausalito, California – USA
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut – LIBAN
2006
British Museum, London – UK
2004
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut – LIBAN
1998
Darat al Funun, Amman – JORDANIE
1992
Gallery 50×70, Beirut – LIBAN
1990
Kufa Gallery, London – UK
1988
Administration Bldg, Fort Mason, San Francisco – USA
1987
Samy Kinge Gallery, Paris – FRANCE
1985
Perception Gallery, San Francisco – USA
1983
Perception Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco – USA
Alif Gallery, Washington – USA
1978
Galerie L’Atelier, Rabat – MAROC
1973
Dar el Fan, Beirut – LIBAN
1971
Sight & Insight, the Cannery, San Francisco – USA
1969
Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, California – USA
1965
Mount Angel College Gallery, Mount Angel, Oregon – USA
Karamanduca Gallery, San Francisco – USA
1963
Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, California – USA
1961
O’Hanlon Gallery, Mill Valley, California – USA

Books