Etel Adnan shows colour alone is all that the painter needs
Viewing Etel Adnan’s vibrant paintings, it is surprising to discover that when Adnan grew up in Beirut, colour only found its way into her home in the form of decorative rugs. Adnan’s childhood home had no paintings on the walls and there were no art museums nearby. Nevertheless, she became interested in making art. Unfortunately for her and us, Adnan was discouraged by her mother’s nullifying comments about being clumsy. So instead, Adnan found her creative outlet through writing. In 1977 she won the France-Pays Arabes award for her novel Sitt Marie Rose.
Many years later after Adnan moved to America and she was teaching Aesthetics at the Dominican College in California she also picked up a brush. Adnan’s colleague Ann O’Hanlon enthusiastically encouraged her to start painting. This encouragement freed the 35-year-old Adnan, and she soon was in a love affair with the colours of the Californian landscape.
Etel Adnan shows colour alone is all that the painter needs
The ulimate experience - Crashing waves by Mary Heilmann
The iconic peak of Mount Tamalpais near San Francisco was visible from her apartment. Along with this and natural shapes and forms of the landscape like triangles, squares and circles, Adnan found her own way forward. Form and mass penetrated her soul and found their way on to her canvases as she painted her spatial experiments. The resulting paintings certainly had the power to affect the soul of the viewer. Adnan painted her canvases on a table in a room in her apartment. She uses a palette knife to create buttery slabs of pure colour, often using oil paint directly from the tube.
Paul Klee, Castle and Sun 1928 All rights remain with the artist ©Paul Klee
Paul Klee, the German artist, was a significant influence for Adnan. Klee came to prominence in the 1920s while teaching at the Bauhaus. Like Adnan, Klee began by working in a different field. Then in 1914 the violinist visited Tunisia and overwhelmed by the inspiring light started painting. Klee began to create a harmony of colours using rectangles on a canvas. He believed that colour could create different responses, similar to the way that music keys do. Klee composed his paintings like he was making a symphony. There is a surprisingly similar approach in Adnan work, but an altogether different looking outcome.
Etel Adnan shows colour alone is all that the painter needs
Etel Adnan's site
In each canvas, Adnan reorganises what she sees into different compositions in a wide variety of pastel tones. Each painting has its own rhythm, energy and its own structural arrangement. Adnan uses colour to see what it can do and explores what colour can communicate. Her work is akin to a poem or a musical composition. The result is something unique and beautiful. Her subtle adjustments of the landscape create a visual symphony that celebrates light.
Up until 2012, Adnan had small shows and was known as a painter only by an intimate audience. At 87, her work received recognition by being included in Documenta. Since then, Adnan had exhibitions at the Serpentine Gallery, the Whitney Biennial and White Cube in London.
Etel Adnan, Untitled 2014 All rights remain with the artist ©Etel Adnan
Etel Adnan shows colour alone is all that the painter needs
What I see in Tal R’s paintings
Adnan later said it was poetic justice that she came to painting through poetry, and she discovered that the reality she saw in her art was up for grabs. Through observing nature, Adnan’s use of the sun, mountains and the horizon suggests a world seen through tinted glasses. Each painting has a spirit, a lifting force that makes you feel warm inside. Adnan paintings encourage us to look at the world and then look beyond what we think we see. She understands the rules and power of colour along with natural know-how of how to use them. I felt that her abstract values were like a path to some kind of truth. Her work says that colour alone is all that the painter needs.
Stuart Bush Studio Notes
If you find Etel Adnan’s work speaks to you, please click the link to look at my response to Adnan’s work.
Stuart Bush, The Quality of Absence print #stuart.bush #absence #artforsalebyartist
Untitled, 2004 mixed media on wooden panel #dapperlife #flaneurism #paintingonwood
“The biggest mistake as an art student, is to try to learn from an artist example. If you like Philip Guston, you can not learn from how a hand holds a cigarette, the motive from him. You have to learn to step one step further back. To understand the method without figures. How they do it before they do it.” Quote by Tal R. Playing around with gouache paint on paper in the studio #stuart.bush #gouachepainting #lineartwork
Oil on aluminium #oilpainting #oilonaluminum #artistonistagram
I’m longing for change. Are you? Giclèe framed print. #changeyourmindchangeyourlife #stuart.bush #artforsalebyartist
Congratulations to Jenny Saville from London for winning my June print giveaway. The print ‘Just a feeling and not just the truth’ looks great at the bottom of your stairs, on your hall wall.
It was nice to meet you, talk, and chat by delivering the framed print in person. I hope your husbands gets better soon. Best wishes.
It is easy to feel helpless, like we are in the flow of the river. And we are looking for something to grab hold of. To pull ourselves out. This is where I think art can make a difference.
Connecting us with our sense. I hope my print can help to do that. I’m into beauty, but not pretty pictures. I want to make something that rattles you and makes you think. Art on your wall, and this print in particular, can help you to reflect on the moment, and the past and of course the present.
When you look at it once, it hasn’t sunk yet. It takes repeated viewing. When you live with an artwork in your walls and you see it everyday, the artwork slowly reveals itself. #printgiveaway #artprints #framedartwork
I don't know what it is but I am sure it is highlighting some kind of truth. ‘Great Souled Way’ #oilpaintingoncanvas #figurepainting #abstractpainting #londonart
#redskyatnight
“Free and alone in the maze of the city, the flâneur craves a revelation that might change his life and destiny.” Quote by
Federico Castigliano #flaneur #inthecity #figurepainting painting by #stuartbush
#oilpaint #yellow💛 #inthestudio
#london #happynewyear
Not sure where I am going with this one. Today mistakes. Work in progress #workinprogress #todaymistakes #oilonaluminum
@stuart.bush New painting, please help with suggestions for a title. Or please DM me if you have any questions about it #oiloncanvas #figureinthecity #inthestudiotoday
#busydaypainting #blankcanvas
#progress #playingwithpaint let me know what you think
Reed Hoffman said “if you're not embarrassed by the first project you launch you're too late” I feel awkward and uncomfortable showing these new artworks for the first time. It is still #workinprogress
#stuart.bush #oilonaluminum #newartwork
#sneekpeek #newpainting
#olufareliasson #tatemodern
@santarama
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