Artworks

Etel Adnan
Matinée récréative, 1970 / 2015
Wool tapestry
72.8 x 65 inches (185 x 165 cm)
Edition 2 of 3 with 1AP (#2/3)
(GP2079)

In 1968, Adnan applied to a class with Ida Grae and discovered a “whole universe linked to tapestry making.” Adnan’s life is itself a weaving, both personally and artistically. Adnan produces her tapestry works with the historic Aubusson atelier PINTON. The pieces are typically based off of early drawings and reveal her mastery of color.

 Etel Adnan’s career spans more than six decades and encompasses a wide range of media—including painting, drawing, tapestry, film, ceramics, and leporello artist books—as it does traditions and locations. Adnan was first an author of poetry and prose, often addressing and protesting the turmoil of the Vietnam War and the Lebanese Civil War. Informing her writing and later her artwork as well, was the landscape, its own history and her emotional and physical response to it. For Adnan, the landscape is mingled with memory, especially a sentiment of displacement, as she was born and raised in Lebanon, but has lived, studied, and worked in France and California throughout her life.

 Solo exhibitions of Adnan’s work have been consistently presented at international institutions since her presentation at Documenta (13), 2012. Currently the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York is hosting: Etel Adnan: Light’s New Measure. Adnan’s work is included in major public collections such as the British Museum, England; Centre Pompidou, France; Institut du Monde Arabe, France; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; M+, Hong Kong, China; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Tunisia; Tate Modern, England; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

 Adnan was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1925. She currently lives and works in Paris, France.