Etel Adnan
- Etel Adnan
- Work
Ithra, Dahran, SA, 2024
Etel Adnan (1925-2021) is widely recognized as one of the foremost authors, poets and playwrights of her generation. Widely known for her literary work, she fluidly moves between the disciplines of writing and art.
Her paintings rose to prominence following their exhibition at dOCUMENTA 13 (2012); and she has had solo exhibitions at K20, Düsseldorf (2023), Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (2022), Lenbachhaus, Munich (2022), Mudam, Luxemburg (2019), SFMoMA, San Francisco (2018), Zentrum Paul Klee, Switzerland (2018), the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2016), UNAM, Mexico City (2017), Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London (2016), Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2015), Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria (2014), and Mathaf, Doha (2014). As well as group exhibitions at Castello di Rivoli, Italy (2017), MoMa, New York (2017), Sharjah Biennial 12 (2015), the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015), the Whitney Museum of Modern Art (2014).
She has works in private collections as well as many public collections around the world such as MoMa, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Kunstsammlung NRW, the Royal Jordanian Museum, LAM, Lille, Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi, Mathaf, Qatar, the Sursock Museum in Beirut, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the British Museum in London, Kunsthaus Zurich, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. Adnan also has tapestries in public spaces and private collections. Slides of her tapestries are in the permanent files of the Contemporary Crafts Museums of New York and Los Angeles.
| Selected Solo Exhibitions | |
| 2024 | Etel Adnan, Between East and West, The King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia |
| 2023 | Etel Adan & Simone Fattal: Voices Without Borders, KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany Poesie der Farben, Etel Adnan, Kunsthalle NRW, K20, Düsseldorf, Germany Painting into Space, The Bass, Miami, USA |
| 2022 | Etel Adnan, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany Colour as Language, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 2020 | The uprising of colors, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2019 | Départ, Institute of Modern Art, Nuremberg, Germany Etel Adnan et le Modernes, MUDAM, Luxemburg Each Day Is A Whole World, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, USA |
| 2018 | New Work: Etel Adnan, SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA Etel Adnan, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland A Yellow Sun A Green Sun A Yellow Sun A Red Sun A Blue Sun, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts, USA Etel Adnan: The dazzling gesture, Fondation Jan Michalski, Montricher, Switzerland Etel Adnan: Tout ce que je fais est mémoire, Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France |
| 2017 | Album à dessins, UNAM Mexico City, Mexico Sea and Fog, Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens, Ontario, Canada Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, Marseille, France |
| 2016 | Paintings • Drawings • Tapestry • Writing, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, Germany Etel Adnan, Institut du monde arabe, Paris, France Etel Adnan: The Weight of the World, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, United Kingdom |
| 2015 | La joie de vivre, Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland Etel Adnan, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2014 | Writing Mountains, The Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria Etel Adnan in All Her Dimensions, Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar Etel Adnan: Dessins, cipM – Centre International de Poésie, Marseille, France |
| 2013 | Etel Adnan, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon Words and Places: Etel Adnan, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA Voyage au Mont Tamalpais, Maison de la Poésie, Paris, France |
| 2012 | Etel Adnan, Works 1965 - 2012, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2010 | Etel Adnan, Paintings and Drawings, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon |
| 2007 | Eileen Curtis Museum, Sausalito, California, USA |
| 2006 | Arte Mare, Bastia, Corsica, France |
| 1998 | Salazar Gallery, University of California, Sonoma, California, USA Etel Adnan: Artist's Books, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan |
Selected Group Exhibitions | |
| 2024 | Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy |
| 2023 | The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany Beirut and the Golden Sixties, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar L'Amour, La mer, les Femmes, Villa Noaille, Toulon, France In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination Rises, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE |
| 2022 | In The Heart of Another Country, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany Color As Program, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Germany Etel Adnan & Simone Fattal: Working Together, Fondazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bolzano, Italy "H" 100 seconds to midnight, Thalia Theater, Hamburg, Germany |
| 2021 | Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Women in Abstraction, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France The Impermanent Display, LUMA Foundation, Arles, France Shirin Neshat. Living in one Land, Dreaming in another, Pinakothek der Moderne, München, Germany |
| 2020 | A sun yellow with anger, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s, Grey Art Gallery, NYU, USA Where Do You Want Ghosts to Reside?, Southern Exposure (SoEx), San Francisco, USA There, where we promenade, Freelands Foundation, London, United Kingdom HUMAN CAPITAL, Innsbruck International Biennial of the Arts, Innsbruck, Austria Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging - 16 Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan Transformaciones - Mujeres Artistas Entre Dos Siglos, Fundación CajaCanarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain |
| 2019 | At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon Downtown Painting, Peter Freeman, New York, USA Luogo e Segni, Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy Sophie Whettnall – Etel Adnan, Centrale, Brussels, Belgium Le Monde N'est Pas Nécessairement Un Empire, Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne, d’Art Contemporain et d’Art Brut, Lille, France So wie wir sind 1.0, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany A a Plume, au Pinceau, au Crayon : Dessins du Monde Arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France Climbing through the tide, Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis, Tunisia |
| 2018 | Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking, Americas Society, New York, USA Acts of Translation, Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan Hot Sun, Late Sun, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France Garden of Memory, Musee Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech, Morocco Painting the Night, Centre Pompidou Metz, France Lettres Ouvertes, de la Calligraphie au Street-Art, Institut des Cultures de l'Islam, Paris, France Focus 2, Mathaf, Doha, Qatar Melancholia, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belgium Le Monde Arabe Vu Par Ses Artistes, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France This is the Gallery and the Gallery is Many Things II, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, United Kingdom Die Biënnale van de Schilderkunst, Over landschappen, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium |
| 2017 | Etel Adnan/Gerhard Richter, Flag Art Foundation, New York, USA L’emozione dei COLORI nell’arte, Castello di Rivoli, Italy Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, MoMa, New York, USA Delirium & Destiny, A Tale of a Tube, Rotterdam, Netherlands WheredoIendyoubegin - On Secularity, Göteborg International Biennal of Contemporary Art, Sweden Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbors, MAXXI, Rome, Italy From Ear to Ear to Ear, Nottingham Contemporary, United Kingdom All the words for rock, Nature and Conflict, Visual Arts Center Fondacion Helga de Alvear, Caceres, Spain Take Me (I’m Yours), Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy Three Women: Three Eyes on the World, EAP Centre d’Art Contemporain, Chatellerault, France 100 Masterpieces of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art: The Barjeel Collection, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris |
| 2016 | Towards a Larger World, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden Looking at the World Around You, Fundación Santander, Madrid, Spain do it, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan |
| 2015 | Liberated Subjects: Present Tense, Foundation de 11 Lijnen, Oudenburg, Belgium SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, 14th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey Interdependence, Manchester International Festival, Manchester, United Kingdom Intimacy in Discourse, Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, USA Nel Mezzo del Mezzo, Palazzo Riso - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo, Italy Follia Continua!, Le CENTQUATRE, Paris, France Albert the kid is ghosting, The David Roberts Art Foundation, London, United Kingdom Too Early, too late. Middle East and Modernity, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy Sharjah Biennial 12: the past, the present, the possible, Sharjah International Art Biennial, Sharjah, UAE Looking Back/The 9th White Columns Annual - Selected by Cleopatra's, White Columns, New York, USA Take me (I'm yours), Monnaie de Paris, France |
| 2014 | 77th Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Rose, CEAAC Centre Europeen D’Actions Artistiqes Contemporaines, Strasbourg, France Extinction Marathon: Visions of the Future, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, United Kingdom Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York , USA this secret world that exists right there in public, Rampa, Istanbul, Turkey Was wir zeigen wollen, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany The Sea - Salut D’honneur Jan Hoet, PMMK - Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium What Remains: Part II, Rose Issa Porjects, London, United Kingdom The Printed Room: read the room/you’ve got to, SALTS, Birsfelden, Switzerland A Special Arrow Was Shot In The Neck, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, United Kingdom |
| 2013 | Tajreed. A Selection of Arab Abstract Art. Part I 1908 – 1960, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait Here, Elswhere / Ici, ailleurs, Marseille-Provence, France Hiwar, Conversations in Amman, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan |
| 2012 | dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany Art from Lebanon - Modern and Contemporary artists: 1880 – 1975, Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon De Menocchio, nous savons beaucoup de choses, Bétonsalon, Paris, France On the Edgware Road, Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom The Art of Friendship, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut |
| 2011 | The Last Grand Tour, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece |
| 2009 | Tafsir, Martin Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin, Germany |
| 2007 | The Dance of Quill and Ink, Contemporary Art of the Middle East, L’Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia The Dance of Quill and Ink, Contemporary Art of the Middle East, The State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, Russia |
| 2006 | Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum, London, United Kingdom |
| 2004 | Palazzo Reale, Napoli, Italy |
| 2003 | Tawashujat: Between Poet and Artist, Jordan National Gallery, Amman, Jordan Musée Municipal de Thionville, France |
| 2001 | L’art du Livre Arabe, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France |
| 1998 | London Artists’ Book Fair, Barbican Center, London, United Kingdom |
| 1997 | Fine Arts Gallery, University of Arkansas, Lafayette, Arkansas, USA London Artists’ Book Fair, Barbican Centre, London, United Kingdom |
| 1996 | André Demedthuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium Book Art VIII, National Museeum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., USA |
| 1995 | Le Arie del Tempo, Studio Alaya, Genoa, Italy Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, USA |
| 1994 | 4 Women artists, Alif Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA Forces of Change, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C., USA |
| 1993 | André Demedthuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium |
| 1991 | Unesco, Paris, France 20 ans, 20 artistes, L’Atelier, Rabat, Morocco Mediatheque, Mureaux, France Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France |
| 1990 | Evenements urbains, Grenoble, France Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy |
Public Collections | |
| British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; M+, Hong Kong, China; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Tunis; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf; Royal Jordanian Museum, Amman; LAM, Lille, Villeneuve-d’Ascq; Guggeneheim, Abu Dhabi; Mathaf, Qatar; Sursock Museum, Beirut; Kunsthaus Zurich | |
Education | |
| Sorbonne University, Paris, France University of California, Berkeley, California Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts | |