Pink Whale

Etel Adnan

Born in Beirut, Etel Adnan moved to California in the 1950s and built a painting practice inspired by her cross-cultural experiences and spiritual engagement with the natural world. She creates her intimate, small-scale compositions with a palette knife instead of a paint brush, which results in rich, geometric fields of color that evoke sunsets, valleys, and mountains. Mount Tamalpais, a peak in Marin County, California, has been a frequent subject. Adnan studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and established herself as a poet, academic, and essayist before she began to make art. A 2012 presentation at Documenta 13 brought Adnan particular acclaim. She has exhibited in Paris, London, New York, Zurich, Marrakesh, and Los Angeles, among other cities, and her work belongs in the collections of the British Museum, M+, the Centre Pompidou, the Sharjah Art Museum, the Tate, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Adnan has also produced drawings, tapestries, films, and ceramics.