Etel Adnan

Etel Adnan
(Beirut, 1925)
Untitled, ca. 1995 – 2000
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

#GuggenheimAbuDhabi collection artist Etel Adnan (b. 1925, Beirut, lives and works in Sausalito, California and Paris) is also one of the foremost poets, authors, activists, and thinkers of her generation. She has been celebrated for her achievements across many genres: poetry, essays, novels, painting, drawing, and filmmaking.

Like many of her works, Untitled (ca. 1995 – 2000) features Mount Tamalpais as she sees it from a window of her house in Sausalito, California. Using a palette knife and bold colors, Adnan’s mountain is made up of rectangles and squares in various colors that seem almost to float ethereally on the surface.  Similar in shape to Mount Sannine in Lebanon, this image draws on her sense of displacement yet represents the sense of familiarity found in the various places we call home.