San Gimignano
Beijing
Les Moulins
Habana
Roma
Sao Paulo
Paris
Dubai
Poet, short story writer, essayist, and artist Etel Adnan was born in Beirut in 1925 to a Syrian Muslim father and a Greek Christian mother. Adnan grew up among the landscapes of Lebanon and Syria before moving to France for a time, and then to America.
Educated in a Catholic convent of French nuns in Beirut, in 1950 Adnan moved to Paris to study philosophy at the Sorbonne. In January 1955 she went to the United States to pursue post-graduate studies in philosophy at U.C. Berkeley and Harvard. From 1958 to 1972, she taught philosophy at Dominican University of California in San Rafael, California. Her first paintings date from 1958, the year she moved to San Francisco at the height of the Ginsberg-led poetic renaissance.
In 1972, Adnan moved back to Beirut and worked as cultural editor for two daily newspapers— Al Safa and L’Orient Le Jour. In 1977, her novel Sitt Marie-Rose was published in Paris, and won the France-Pays Arabes award. This novel has been translated into more than 10 languages, and was to have an immense influence, becoming a classic of War Literature.
Since writing her first book of poems Moonshots in the 1960s, Adnan has published many books in English and French, written the texts for two documentaries made by Jocelyne Saab on the civil war in Lebanon which were shown on French television as well as in Europe and Japan, written two plays Like a Christmas Tree and The Actress, made a film about Calamity Jane in collaboration with Delphine Seyring and her poetry was put to music were in the staging and production of Gavin Bryars’ Love Poems.
The works of Adnan are part of many private collections and museums around the world such as: the Royal Jordanian Museum, Tunis Museum of Modern Art, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, Sursock Museum in Beirut, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the British Museum in London, the World Bank Collection and the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington DC. In 2010, the artist participated in the "Memory Marathon" at the Serpentine Gallery in London and in 2012 she took part in dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel. In 2014 her works were shown at the Whitney Biennial, New York and in the same year the Mathaf in Doha dedicated a retrospective exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist to her. In 2016, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London held her first solo show in the UK. In 2018 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern dedicated her solo shows. In 2019 Institute of Modern Art, Nuremberg, MUDAM Luxembourg and Aspen Art Museum in Colorado also dedicated her solo exhibitions.
Deeply in love with nature and its original symbiosis with our existence, Adnan paints landscapes without human figures. Seeking to represent only the physical beauty of the universe and the intense bond she has with it, the artist executes her paintings with clear, confident strokes. The colors, bold and at the same time nuanced, give a sense of permanence to the canvas. Adnan asks, “Do colors have the power to break the Time barrier, and carry us into outer spaces, not only those made of miles and distances, but those of the accumulated experiences of life since its beginning or unbeginning?”
She passed away on 14 November, 2021.
2022
Colour as Language, Vam Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Etel Adnan & Simone Fattal: Working Together, Fontazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bolzano
Hala Wardé avec / with: Etel Adnan, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
2021
Etel Adnan: Light's New Measure, Guggenheim Museum, New York
2019
Départ, Institute of Modern Art, Nuremberg, Germany
Etel Adnan et les modernes, MUDAM, Luxembourg
Etel Adnan: Each day is a whole world, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, USA
2018
New Work: Etel Adnan, SFMOMA - San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 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
Déjeuner au soleil, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
2016
Etel Adnan. The Weight of the World, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London
Etel Adnan, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2015
White Cube, Hong Kong
Etel Adnan, IMMA, Dublin
Galerie Lelong, Paris - New York
Etel Adnan. La joie de vivre, Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
2014
Etel Adnan. In All her dimensions, Mathaf, Doha
Cipm - centre international de la poesie, Marseille, France
Writing mountains, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg
Etel Adnan, San Gimignano, Galleria Continua, Boissy-le Châtel, France
Etel Adnan, Galleria Continua, Beijing
Etel Adnan, Le soleil amoureux de la lune, Galleria Continua, Boissy-le Châtel, France
2013
Words and Places: Etel Adnan, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco,
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut
Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
Maison de la poesie, Paris
2012
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg
2010
Europie Gallery, Paris
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut
2009
Bonnafont Gallery, San Francisco
2007
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut
Eileen Curtis Museum, Sausalito, California
2006
Arte Mare, Bastia, Corsica, France
2004
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut
1999
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut
1998
Salazar Gallery, University of California, Sonoma
Darat al Funun, Amman
1992
Gallery 50X70, Beirut
1990
Kufa Gallery, London
1989
Salazar Library, University of California, Sonoma
1988
Administration Bldg, Fort Mason, San Francisco
1987
Samy Kinge Gallery, Paris
1986
Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California
1985
Perception Gallery, San Francisco
1984
Perception Gallery, San Francisco
1983
Perception Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco
Alif Gallery, Washington D.C.
1982
AI Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
1979
Asilah Festival, Morocco
1978
Galerie L' Atelier, Rabat, Morocco
1977
Galerie La Roue, Paris
1973
Dar el Fan, Beirut
1971
Sight & Insight, The Cannery, San Francisco
1969
Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, California
1968
Unitarian Center, San Rafael, California
1965
Karamanduca Gallery, San Francisco
Mount Angel College Gallery, Mount Angel, Oregon
1964
Karamanduca Gallery, San Francisco
1963
Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, California
1961
O'Hanlon Gallery, Mill Valley, California
2022
Impasse des Lilas, Arc en rêve centre d'architecture, Bordeaux
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
2020
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, UK
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
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
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
Focus 2, Mathaf, Doha
Melancholia, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels
Le Monde Arabe vu par ses Artistes, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Biennial of Painting, On Landscape, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
2017
Etel Adnan/Gerhard Richterb, 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, UK
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
Etel Adnan / Gerard Richter, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York
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
Etel Adnan: Selected Works, Sharjah Biennial 12, Sharjah, UAE
Liberated Subjects: Present Tense, Foundation de 11 Lijnen, Oudenburg, Belgium
14th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey
Interdependence, Manchester International Festival, Manchester, UK
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, UK
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
Take Me (I’m Yours), La Monnaie de Paris
After Babel, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
2014
Whitney Biennial, New York
Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York
Was wir zeigen wollen, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany
2013
HIWAR, Darat al Funun, Amman
2012
Documenta 13, Kassel
2009
Taswir, Martin Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin
2007
5 Artists, Oriental Museum, Moscow
5 Artists, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
2006
British Museum, Londo
2004
Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy
2003
Jordan National Gallery, Amman
Musée Municipal de Thionville, France
2001
L'art du livre Arabe, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris
Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
2000
Art Paris. Le Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
1998
London Artists' Book Fair, Barbican Center, London
Bradford-Smock Gallery, San Francisco
1997
Fine Arts Gallery, University of Arkansas, Lafayette, Arkansas
Bradford Gallery, San Anselmo, California
London Artists' Book Fair, Barbican Center, London
1996
Andre Demedtshuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium
Book Art VIII, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
1995
Le Arie del Tempo, Studio Alaya, Genoa, Italy
Inter-American Gallery, Dade Wolfson Campus, Miami
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago
Illinois Nexus Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia Hallie Brown Ford Gallery, Salem, Oregon
Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, California
1994
Demedtshuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium
Galerie de Paperbusse, Ostende, Belgium
4 Women Artists, Alif Gallery, Washington D.C.
Forces of Change, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.
1993
Galerie Natkin-Berta, Paris
Andre Demedtshuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium
1991
UNESCO, Paris
Mediatheque, Mureaux, France
20 ans, 20 artistes, L'Atelier, Rabat, Morocco
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
1990
Evenements urbains, Grenoble, France
Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy
2014
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, France
Lifetime Achievement award by the Radius of Arab American Writers Inc. (RAWI)
Women Playwrights International honours Adnan with its annual Etel Adnan Award for Women Playwrights
Adnan has been the president of RAWI: Radius of Arab-American Writers, Inc.
Adnan was honoured with an homage ceremony in Beirut
SmallPress Traffic Homage to Etel Adnan
2013
Winner of the 2013 LAMBDA Literary Award for Poetry for Sea and Fog
Winner of the 2013 California Book Award for Poetry for Sea and Fog
2010
Winner of the 2010 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award for Master of the Eclipse
Winner of the Arab American National Museum's 2010 Arab American Book Award for Master of the Eclipse
1977
Amitié Franco-Arab Prize, awarded by the Association de Soidarité Franco-Arabe, for Sitt Marie Rose
2008
Inclined To Speak: An Anthology of Arab-American Poetry. Hayan Charara (ed), University of Arkansas Press, Little Rock.
Excerpts from The Indian Never Had a Horse and To Be in a Time of War. American Hybrid. Cole Swensen & David St. John (eds), W.W. Norton, NewYork.
The Beirut Hell-Express: The Love Poems. Women of the Fertile Crescent. Three Continents Press, Washington D.C.
Excerpt from The Arab Apocalypse. For Palestine. Jay Murphy (ed), Writers and Readers
2007
Begin Here: Poems for Palestine & Lebanon. Kamal Boullata & Kathy Engel (eds), Interlink Books
2006
Homelands: Women's Journeys Across Race, Place, and Time. Seal Press.
The Power of Death. Hikayat Short Stories by Lebanese Women. Roseanne Khalaf (ed).
New York: Telegram Books
2003
Letter to Mayakovsky. Enough. Leslie Scalapino (ed), O Books, Oakland.
2002
Art on the Line. Essays by Artists About the Point Where their Art & Activism Intersect. Jack Hirschman (ed), Curbstone Press, Portland.
2001
A Crack in the Wall. New Arab Poetry. Margaret Obank & Samuel Shimon (eds), AI Saqui Books, London.
2000
A Different Path An Anthology of the Radius of Arab American Writers. D.H. Melhem & Leila Diab (eds), The Ridgeway Press, Detroit.
1999
Excerpt from In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country. The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction. Naomi Holoch & Joan Nestle (eds), Vintage Books, New York.
There Are No Frogs in This Wide Sky. World's Edge. Sherry Reiniker (ed), Word Press/Open Meeting, Japan.
1998
Excerpt from Sitt Marie Rose. Das Weise Meer. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt. First Passion. Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade. Clifford Chase (ed), Rob Weisbach Books, New York.
1997
Excerpt from Journey to Mount Tamalpaïs. Beside the Sleeping Maiden: Poets of Marin. C.B. Follett (ed), Arctos Press, Sausalito.
1996
My Friend Kate. 2000 And What? Stories About the Turn of the Millenium. Karl Roeseler & David Gilbert (eds), New York Trip Street Press
1994
Excerpt from The Beirut-Hell Express. The Woman That I Am: The Literature & Culture of Contemporary Women of Color. Dr Soyini Madison (ed), St. Martin's Press, NewYork.
1993
Deep Into The World. Lusitania 5: For/Za Sarajevo. Autonomedia, Brooklyn.
Excerpt from The Beirut-Hell Express Women Poets of the World. Joanne Banker & Deirdre Lashghari Macmillan (eds)
1992
Excerpt from The Arab Apocalypse. Resurgent: New Writing by Women. Lou Robinson & Camille Norton (eds), University of Illinois Press, Champagne.
1990
Opening The Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing. Margot Badran & Myriam Cooke Virago (eds), Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
1989
Excerpt from The Beirut-Hell Express, Grape Leaves. Gregory Orfalea & Sharif Elmusa (eds), University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1984
Wild with Gentleness: Introducing Russell Chatham. Russell Chatham a Monograph. Winn Books, Seattle.
1981
Contemporary Writing from the Continents, Mundus Artium. vol. XII & XIII
1980-1982
And Not Surrender. American Poets on Lebanon (Arab-American Cultural Foundation)
1977
In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country. Mundius Artium: Arabic Issue, vol. x, no.1. University of Texas, Dallas.
1976
The Enemy's Testament. Twentieth-century Women's Poetry in Translation: The Other Voice. Joanna Banker & Derdre Lashgari (eds), WW, New York.
1975
Pablo Neruda is a BananaTree For Neruda, For Chile. Walter Lowenfelds (ed), Beacon Press, Boston.
1973
The Battle of Angels. From the Belly of the Shark. Walter Lowenfels (ed) Vintage Books, New York.
1968
The Enemy's Testament. Where IsVietnam? Walter Lowenfels (ed), Doubleday, NewYork.
