Etel Adnan was born in Beirut in 1925 to a Greek mother from Smyrna, and a Damascus born father, a high-ranking Ottoman official. Though renowned for her poetry, she achieved international...
ETEL ADNAN, Lebanon (1925 - 2021)
Bio
Written by WAFA ROZ
Etel Adnan was born in Beirut in 1925 to a Greek mother from Smyrna, and a Damascus born father, a high-ranking Ottoman official. Though renowned for her poetry, she achieved international recognition as a visual artist only in her late eighties, thanks mainly to the promotion of a prominent German curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and the Beirut-Hamburg based Sfeir-Semler Gallery. Adnan, who speaks Greek, Turkish, French, English, and Arabic, has published in both English and French and benefited from international education. Educated at French schools in Lebanon, she studied French literature, later completing a degree in philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1955, she pursued postgraduate studies in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University. A nomadic cosmopolitan influenced by the writings of Baudelaire, Balzac, Paul Souriau, and Gaston Bachelard, Adnan expressed her philosophical ideas in prose, poetry, playwriting, and visual arts.
From 1958 to 1972, Adnan taught aesthetics at the Dominican College in San Rafael, California. It was during her time in the United States that she began her career as a visual artist in earnest.
Adnan’s mother, who mocked the clumsiness of her hands as a child, dissuaded her from practicing visual art.
But, at the age of 33, she discovered a passion and a talent for painting, encouraged by the artist Ann O’Hanlon. O’Hanlon and her husband owned a gallery in Mill Valley, CA, where Adnan held her first solo show in 1961. During this period, Adnan was actively opposed to French colonialism in Algeria as well as the war in Vietnam, expressing the anti-colonial sentiments she had developed in French Mandate Lebanon through her poetry and prose. Her contemporaneous paintings, however, are mostly abstract landscapes inspired by nature rather than politics.
Adnan returned to Lebanon in 1972 as a cultural editor for Al Safa newspaper, then for the French newspaper “L’Orient Le Jour.” There, she met the artist and writer Simone Fattal, who would become her lifelong partner. Forced out of Lebanon by the civil war, Adnan fled to Paris in 1976, where she wrote what would become a key text exploring gender and the war, the acclaimed novel Sit Marie Rose. In 1979 she returned to California, and she and Fattal have since continued to live between the United States, France, and Lebanon.
Many of Adnan’s paintings make ample use of impasto, a technique by which paint is applied liberally with a palette knife in three-dimensional strokes. This method gives her abstract compositions a textural richness that enhances the vivid hues of the paint itself, which the artist frequently applies directly from the tube, and draws a comparison with the work of French-Russian modernist Nicolas de Staël. These multi-sensory canvases are filled with sparse but thoughtfully composed geometric forms and carefully juxtaposed colors, and vary in their degree of legibility; some are representational, while others are entirely abstract. In terms of subject matter, these paintings draw inspiration from Adnan’s physical environment as well as her philosophical beliefs. Through her visual art, Adnan celebrates her spiritual love for the earth, inclusive of its landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes. Closest to the artist’s heart is Mount Tamalpais, visible from the window of her house in Sausalito, California; this location has been a fixed point of reference in her work for over three decades. Philosophically, Adnan is attracted to the notion of infinity through spirituality, influenced by the poetic writings of Joanne Kyger, a Zen Buddhist, and the Sufi philosophy of Al- Hallaj’s poems. This philosophy, combined with her investment in the idea of sunlight as life-giving and revelatory, is expressed through her Leporello works; Japanese-style, accordion-fold notebooks that feature handwritten poetry and dreamy watercolor sketches.
The artist passed away in Paris in 2021.
Sources
Abillama Nour Salamé, Marie Tomb, Amin Maalouf, joseph Tarrab, Cesar Nammour, Maha Azize Sultan, Faycal Sultan, and Gregory Bucakjian. Art from Lebanon: Modern and contemporary artist1880-1975 V I. Beirut, Lebanon: Wonderful editions, 2012.
Khal, Helen, Cesar Nammour, Gabriela Schaub. Resonances 82 Lebanese Artists Beirut, Lebanon: Fine Arts Publishing,2011
Khal, Helen. The woman artist in Lebanon. Beirut, Lebanon: The Institute, 1987.
Sfeir-Semler, Andree, Lewis R Claudia, Meyer Lutz, Bakargiev Carolyn Christov , Fattal Simone, Obrist Hans Ulrich , Currie Peter, Etel Adnan Paintings 1965-1970 .Beirut/Hamburg Sfeir-Semler Gallery,2012
“Etel Adnan, By Lisa Robinson”. Bomb Magazine., Accessed September 6,2017. http://bombmagazine.org/articl...
Etel Adnan Biography, Galerie Claude Lemand”, Accessed September 7, 2017. http://www.claude-lemand.com/a...
“Artist and Poet Etel Adnan on How She Seeks Bliss Through Capturing the World’s Visual Beauty”. Art Space.Acessed September 6,2017. http://www.artspace.com/magazi...
Etel Adnan Interview”. FinancialTimes.Accessed September 8, 2017. https://www.ft.com/content/151...
“Paintings and Drawings – Etel Adnan”. ArtAsiaPacific.Accessed Sep 6, 2017. http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/86/EtelAdnan
+–
1980-
CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023
Etel Adnan: Poetry of Colors, K20, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, Germany
Etel Adnan: Painting Into Space, The Bass, Miami, Miami Beach, Miami, Florida, USA
2022
Etel Adnan: Discovery of Immediacy, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, Chelsea, New York, USA
Etel Adnan: Colour as Language, Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands
Etel Adnan, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
2021
Impossible Homecoming, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Etel Adnan: Light’s New Measure, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Etel Adnan: New works, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
Writing is Drawing, Centre Pompidou Metz, Metz, France
2020
Etel Adnan, The Uprising of Colors, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2019
Etel Adnan et Les Modernes,Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM),Luxembourg city, Luxembourg
Etel Adnan: Each day is a whole world, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, USA
2018
Etel Adnan: Talking to Flowers, Galerie Lelong &Co., Paris, France
New Work: Etel Adnan, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art(SFMOMA), San Francisco, USA
Etel Adnan, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
Etel Adnan, La fulgurance du geste, Fondation Jan Michalski, Montricher, Switzerland
Tout ce que je fais est Mémoire by Etel Adnan,
A Yellow Sun A Green Sun A Yellow Sun A Red Sun A Blue Sun, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), Massachusetts, USA
2017
Album à dessins, Biblioteca Central, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México(UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Sea and Fog, Oakville Galleries in Gairloch Gardens, Ontario, Canada
2016 Paintings • Drawings • Tapestry • Writing, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, Germany
Etel Adnan, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Etel Adnan: The Weight of the World, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, UK
2015
La joie de vivre, Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland
Etel Adnan, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Nouvelles estampes, Galerie Lelong, Paris, France
Etel Adnan, Galerie Lelong, New York, USA
2014
Le Soleil amoureux de la Lune, Galerie Continua, Les Moulins, France
Writing Mountains, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Mönchsberg, Austria
White Cube Bermondsey, London, UK
Callicoon Fine Arts, NY
Etel Adnan in All Her Dimensions, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Etel Adnan and Arab Modernity, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France
2013
Words and Places: Etel Adnan, The Wattis Institute, San Francisco, CA
Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France
Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy
Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Beirut, Lebanon
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Lebanese Landscapes, Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Endless, MCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,Near North Side,Chicago,Illinois, USA
Ashkal Alwan: Intimate Garden Scene (in Beirut), Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Americans in Paris, Barbara Mathes Gallery,Upper East Side,New York, USA
The Journey Before Me, Marin MOCA, Novato, California, USA
Under Two Suns, Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM), Eskisehir,Turkey
On Landscape, Greene Naftali, Chelsea, New York, USA
Arab Presences: Modern Art And Decolonisation: Paris 1908-1988, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, 16e, Paris, France
Arranged: Recent Acquisitions of Modern and Contemporary Paintings, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
Seven Rooms and a Garden: Rashid Johnson and The Moderna Museet Collection, Moderna Museet, Stockholm,Sweden
Une Chambre à Soi, Chateau la Coste, France
Rupture & Connection, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, Texas, USA
Carpets of Eden, Gardens of Fantasy, Leila Heller Gallery, Dubai, Al Quoz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2023
In The Heart Of Another Country, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg,Germany
In Search of the Miraculous, Marlborough, New York, USA
In the Shadow of Mt Tam, Anthony Meier Fine Arts, Mill Valley,California,USA
The Future Of Traditions, Writing Pictures Contemporary Art From The Middle East, The Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Bloomsbury, London, UK
And I Trust You, Miettinen Collection, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
58th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–70, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig and The Feminist Video Collectives of 1970s and 1980s France, Stuttgart, Germany
Lebanon,Untitled: Modern & Contemporary Lebanese Art, Janet Rady Fine Art, London, UK
The Feminine in Abstract Painting, The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, New York, USA
Recent Painting Acquisitions, MUT, Mutina, Fiorano Modenese, Italy
Ione Saldanha & Etel Adnan: Two Colorists, Simões de Assis, Curitiba, Curitiba, Brazil
(Un)belonging, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, Chelsea,New York,USA
Beirut And The Golden Sixties: A Manifesto Of Fragility, Mathaf, Arab, Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Christie’s London, St. James's,London, UK
New Horizons, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands
Etel Adnan & Howard Hodgkin: Memories, Cristea Roberts Gallery, St. James's,London, UK
In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination Rises, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Un Tiempo Propio: Liberarse De Las Ataduras De Lo Cotidiano, Centre Pompidou Malaga, Malaga, Spain
Hans-Ulrich Obrist Archive Chapter 1: Édouard Glissant, Luma Westbau, Zürich, Switzerland
The Inner Island, Villa Carmignac, Hyères, France
Chaque Nuit J'entre Dans Les Creux des Troncs et J'écoute, Galerie C, Neuchâtel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Thus Waves Come In Pairs, Ocean Space,Venice, Italy
Linhas Tortas, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
The Weight of Words, Henry Moore Institute Galleries, Leeds, UK
2023 Holiday Gift Guide, Leslie Sacks Gallery, Santa Monica,California, USA
The Ability To Dream, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, Boissy-le-Châtel, France
Etel Adnan & Simone Fattal: Voices without borders, KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time. Artistic Testimonies of War and Repression, Brücke-Museum, Dahlem, Berlin, Germany
The Assault of the Present on the Rest of Time, Schinkel Pavillion, Berlin, Germany
Mix & Match. Rediscovering The Collection, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany
Deep Deep Down: Collection presentation, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
2022
Courage Before Expectation, The FLAG Art Foundation, Chelsea,New York, USA
Sun Is Coming Up, Custot Gallery Dubai, Al Quoz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
A roof for Silence, Palais de Tokyo, 16e, Paris, France
Small Paintings, Venus Over Manhattan (Uptown)Upper East Side, New York, USA
Defiant Muses, Kunsthalle Wien, Museumsquartier Vienna, Austria
Art Is The Antidote, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
From Body to Horizon, LGDR, New York (Madison Av.)Upper East Side, New York, USA
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s, The Block Museum Evanston,Chicago, Illinois, USA
Homage To Jannis Kounellis, Galleria Fumagalli, Milan, Italy
Manifesto of Fragility: Beirut and The Golden Sixties, Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art Lyon, France
15 Years, Crossed Perspectives, Galerie Tanit, Beirut, Lebanon
; Organized by Mark McKnight, Vielmetter Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA
The Ability To Dream, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano San Gimignano, Italy
Museum in Motion, M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
Material Journey, Custot Gallery Dubai, Al Quoz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
In The Vast Toothpick Cities Of The Future, Make Room Los Angeles, California, USA
Color Code, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts Mission District,S an Francisco, California, USA
2021
Women in Abstraction, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Franc
Body and Line. Miami, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, Miami, Florida, USA
Horizons, Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Paris, Paris, France
Le Cinquième Printemps, Custot Gallery Dubai, Al Quoz, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
All Suffering Soon to End!, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, USA
3 Fois La Mesure, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels, Belgium
Lost Weekend, Galerie Allen, Paris, France
New Prints and Editions, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, Chelsea , New York, USA
Hiding in Plain Sight, Pace New York (540 West 25th Street), Chelsea, New York, USA
Poet Slash Artist, Home Manchester, Manchester, UK
The Earth, That is Sufficient, Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, USA
A I S T I T. Coming to our senses, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
The Rain Forever Will be Made of Bullets, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
À Bras Ouverts, Galleria Continua, Paris, France
Converging Horizons, Waddington Custot, Mayfair, London, UK
Converging Lines: Tracing the Artistic Lineage of the Arab Diaspora in the U.S., MEI Art Gallery, Middle East Institute, Washington D.C., District Of Columbia, USA
Postcolonial Ecologies, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging. 16 Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art Museum, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan
How will it end?, Fondation Boghossian, Brussels, Belgium
Suspension / Stillness, Carré d'Art, Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes, Nimes, France
Let Textiles Talk. Six Tapestries Unravelled, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nota Bene, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, Boissy-le-Châtel, France
2020
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950-1980s, Grey Art Gallery, New York University; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Illinois; Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, New York; McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College; University of Michigan Museum of Art; US
2019
A la Plume, Au Pinceau, Au Crayon, Dessins du Monde Arabe,World, Institut du monde, Paris, France
It’s Urgent- Part II, Luma Webstau, Zurich, Switzerland
Downtown Painting, Peter Freeman Inc, New York, USA
Luogo E Segni, Palazzo Grassi – Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy
Sophie Whettnall – Etel Adnan, La banquise, la forêt et les étoiles, Centrale for contemporary art, Brussels, Belgium
Nobody’s World, Gordon Robichaux, New York, NY,USA
2018
Painting the Night, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
Lydia Cabrera and Édouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking, Americas Society, New York, USA
Women on Paper, Espace de l’Art Concret Centre d’art contemporain (eac), Mouans-Sartoux, France
Acts of Translation, Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan
Hot Sun, Late Sun.Untamed Modernism, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France
Garden of Memory, Musée Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech, Morocco
Melancholia, The Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium
2017
Trois femmes, trois regards sur le monde, Centre d’art Contemporain, Châtellerault,France
Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction, MoMa, New York, USA
Colour is, Waddington Custot, London, UK
From Ear to Ear to Eye, Nottingham Contemporary, UK
Take Me (I’m Yours), Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Home Beirut. Sounding the Neighbors, MAXXI, Rome, Italy
If Not Apollo, the Breeze, KADIST, San Francisco, USA
Etel Adnan/Gerhard Richter, Flag Art Foundation, New York, USA
L’emozione dei COLORI nell’arte, Castello di Rivoli, Italy
Delirium & Destiny, A Tale of a Tube, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Where doIendandyou begin - On Secularity, Göteborg International Biennal of Contemporary Art, Sweden
All the words for rock. Nature and Conflict, Visual Arts Center Fundación Helga de Alvear, Caceres, Spain
2016
Towards a Larger World, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
Looking at the World Around You, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
Barjeel Art Foundation Collection,Imperfect Chronology: Mapping the Contemporary II, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Memory and Continuity: A Selection from the Huma Kabakçı Collection, Pera Museum, Istanbul
Do it, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
2015
SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms, Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Intimacy in Discourse, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
Nel Mezzo del Mezzo, Palazzo Riso, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo, Italy
Follia Continua!, Le CENTQUATRE, Paris, France
After Babel, Moderna Musseet, Stockholm, Sweden
Albert the kid is ghosting, 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 Biennial, U.A.E.
The Sea - Salut D'honneur Jan Hoet, PMMK, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium
Looking Back / The 9th White Columns Annual- Selected by Cleopatra's, White Columns, NY, USA
Liberated Subjects: Present Tense, Foundation de 11 Lijnen, Oudenburg, Belgium
2014
5 Billion Solar Years..., Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, Germany
Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York, NY USA
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Rose, Centre Européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines, Strasbourg, France
2013
Calligraffiti: 1984 - 2013, Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY
Hiwar, Conversations in Amman, Darat al Funun-The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan
Tajreed. A selection of Arab Abstract Art: 1908-1960, CAP Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait
Ici, ailleurs, Tour-Panorama- friche belle de mai, Marseille, France
2012
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg , Germany
Documenta 13, KASSEL
2010
Europie Gallery, Paris - FRANCE
Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut - LIBAN
2009
Bonnafont Gallery, San Francisco - USA
2007
Eileen Curtis Museum, Sausalito, California - USA
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut - LIBAN
2006
British Museum, London - UK
2004
Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut - LIBAN
1998
Darat al Funun, Amman - JORDANIE
1992
Gallery 50x70, Beirut - LIBAN
1990
Kufa Gallery, London - UK
1988
Administration Bldg, Fort Mason, San Francisco - USA
1987
Samy Kinge Gallery, Paris - FRANCE
1985
Perception Gallery, San Francisco - USA
1983
Alif Gallery, Washington - USA
Perception Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco - USA
1978
Galerie L'Atelier, Rabat - MAROC
1973
Dar el Fan, Beirut - LIBAN
1971
Sight & Insight, the Cannery, San Francisco - USA
1969
Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, California - USA
1965
Mount Angel College Gallery, Mount Angel, Oregon - USA
Karamanduca Gallery, San Francisco - USA
1963
Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, California - USA
1961
O'Hanlon Gallery, Mill Valley, California - USA
Awards and Honors
2020
Griffin Poetry Prize for "Time" written by Etel Adnan translated by Sarah Riggs
2014
Named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
2013
Her poetry collection Sea and Fog won the California Book Award for Poetry.
LAMBDA Literary Award for Poetry for Sea and Fog.
2010
The Arab American Book Awards for Master of the Eclipse.
PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award for Master of the Eclipse.
1977
Sitt Marie Rose won the Amitié Franco-Arab Prize (an award given by the Association de Solidarité Franco-Arabe)
Adnan also has a RAWI Lifetime Achievement Award from the Radius of Arab-American Writers.
Women Playwrights International honors Adnan with its annual Etel Adnan Award for Women Playwrights.
Publications
ENGLISH
BOOKS
2014
To look at the sea is to become what one is: An Etel Adnan Reader.Brooklyn & Callicoon, NY: Nightboat Books.
Premonition.Berkeley, CA: Kelsey Street Press.
2013
The Ninth Page: Etel Adnan’s Journalism 1972-1974. CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts.
2012
Sea and Fog.Callicoon, NY: Nightboat Books.
Homage to Etel Adnan.Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
2011
Etel Adnan: On Love and the Cost We Are Not Willing to Pay Today: 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts:Documenta Series 006. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag.
2009
Master of the Eclipse. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books. Winner of the Oakland Pen Award, 2010
2008
Seasons. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
2005
In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country.San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books.
2003
In/somnia.Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1997
There In the Light and the Darkness of the Self and of the Other. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1993
Paris, When It’s Naked.Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
Of Cities and Women: Letters To Fawwaz. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1990
The Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the Voyage.Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1989
The Arab Apocalypse. Trans. (from the French) Etel Adnan. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1986
Journey To Mount Tamalpais. Illustrated by Etel Adnan. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1985
The Indian Never Had A Horse & Other Poems.Illustrated by Russell Chatham. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press.
1982
Sitt Marie-Rose.Trans. (from the French) Georgina Kleege. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press. Now in its 8th edition.
1982
From A To Z. Sausalito, CA: The Post-Apollo Press
1971
Five Senses for One Death.New York, NY: The Smith. Out of Print
1966
Moonshots. Beirut, Lebanon: BEYROUTH. Out of Print
ANTHOLOGIES
2009
Excerpts from The Indian Never Had a Horseand To Be in a Time of War.American Hybrid. Eds. Cole Swensen and David St. John. W.W. Norton.
The Beirut Hell-Express: the Love Poems. Women of the Fertile Crescent.Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press.
Excerpt from The Arab Apocalypse.For Palestine. Eds. Jay Murphy. Writers and Readers.
2008
Inclined To Speak: An Anthology of Arab-American Poetry.Ed. Hayan Charara. University of Arkansas Press.
2007
We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine & Lebanon. Eds. Kamal Boullata & Kathy Engel. Interlink Books.
2006
Homelands: Women’s Journeys Across Race, Place, and Time. Seal Press.
The Power of Death. Hikayat Short Stories by Lebanese Women. Ed. Roseanne Khalaf. Telegram Books.
2003
“Letter to Mayakovsky.” Enough. Ed. Leslie Scalapino. Oakland, CA: O Books.
2002
Art on the Line: Essays by Artists About the Point Where their Art & Activism Intersect.Ed. Jack Hirschman. Portland, OR: Curbstone Press.
2001
A Crack in the Wall. New Arab Poetry. Eds. Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon. London, UK: Al Saqui Books.
2000
A Different Path: An Anthology of the Radius of Arab American Writers. Ed. D.H. Melhem & Leila Diab. Detroit, MI: The Ridgeway Press.
1999
There Are No Frogs in This Wide Sky.World’s Edge. Ed Sherry Reiniker. Japan: Word Press/Open Meeting.
Excerpt from In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country. The Vintage Book of International Lesbian Fiction. Ed. Naomi Holoch and Joan Nestle. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
1998
First Passion. Queer 13: Lesbian and Gay Writers Recall Seventh Grade. Ed. Clifford Chase. Rob Weisbach Books.
Excerpt from Sitt Marie-Rose.Das Weise Meer. Frankfurt, Germany: Suhrkamp 0000Verlag,
1997
Excerpt from Journey To Mount Tamalpais. Beside the Sleeping Maiden: Poets of Marin.Ed. C.B. Follett. Sausalito, CA: Arctos Press.
1996
My Friend Kate. 2000 And What? Stories About the Turn of the Millenium.Eds. Karl Roeseler and David Gilbert. Trip Street Press.
1994
Excerpt from The Beirut-Hell Express. The Woman That I Am: The Literature & Culture of Contemporary Women of Color.Ed. Dr Soyini Madison. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
1993
Excerpt from The Beirut-Hell Express. Women Poets of the World. Ed. Joanne Banker and Deirdre Lashghari Macmillan.
Deep Into The World. Lusitania 5: For/Za Sarajevo. Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia.
1992
Excerpt from The Arab Apocalypse. Resurgent: New Writing by Women.Eds. Lou Robinson and Camille Norton. Champagne, IL: University of Illinois Press.
1990
Opening The Gates: An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing.Eds. Margot Badran and Myriam Cooke Virago. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
1989
Excerpt from The Beirut-Hell Express.Grape Leaves. Eds. Gregory Orfalea & Sharif Elmusa. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press.
1984
Wild with Gentleness: Introducing Russell Chatham.Russell Chatham a Monograph. Seattle, WA: Winn Books.
1980-
1982
And Not Surrender.American Poets on Lebanon (Arab-American Cultural Foundation).1981 Contemporary Writing from the Continents vol. XII & XIII. Mundus atrium.
1977
In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country.Mundius Artium: Arabic Issue vol. x no. 1. Dallas, TX: University of Texas at Dallas.
1976
The Enemy’s Testament. Twentieth Century Women’s Poetry in Translation: The Other Voice.Eds. Joanna Banker & Derdre Lashgari. New York, NY: WW.
1975
Pablo Neruda is a Banana Tree. Ed. Walter Lowenfelds. For Neruda, For Chile. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
1973
The Battle of Angels. From the Belly of the Shark.Ed. Walter Lowenfels. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
1968
The Enemy’s Testament. Where is Vietnam?Ed. Walter Lowenfels. New York, NY: Doubleday.
FRENCH
BOOKS
2016
La Vie est un tissage,Galerie Lelong. 2016. Life is a weaving. Translated from the English by Wendy Parramore, Galerie Lelong.
Orphée face au néant suivi de Delphes et Kiato,ParusàL’Echoppe.
Sans oublier bien sûr, ParusàL’Echoppe.
Simone Fattal, Etel Adnan, la peinture commeénergie pure,ParusàL’Echoppe.
2015
Image pour Odysseus Elytis, L’Espace de l’Egée, Translated from the Greek by Malamati Soufarapis, ParusàL’Echoppe.
Ecrire dans une langueétrangère, Translated from the English by Patrice Cotensin, ParusàL’Echoppe.
Heiner Müller et le Tintoret : la fin possible de l’effroi,ParusàL’Echoppe.
Le Prix Que Nous ne Voulons Pas Payer pour l›Amour. Translated from the English by Patrice Cotensin. Galerie Lelong.
Ecrire Dans Une Langue Etrangère. Translated from the English by Patrice Cotensin. L’Echoppe.
Mer & Brouillard. Translated from the English by Marie Borel, Jérémy Robert aux Editions de l’Attente.
Prémonition. Translated from the English by Eric Giraud and Holly Dye, Galerie Lelong.
Le prix que nous ne voulons pas payer pour l’amour. Translated from the English by Patrice Cotensin, Galerie Lelong.
A propos de la fin de l’empire ottoman. Translated from the English by Patrice Cotensin, Galerie Lelong.
Le Maître de l’Eclipse,nouvelles, traduit par Martin Richet aux Editions Manuela, Paris.
Premonitiontranslated from the English By Eric Giraud and Holly Dye, (reread by the author) with a postface by Jean Frémon. Galerie Lelong.
2014
Des Villes et des Femmes, LettresàFawwaz.Editions Tamyras. Beyrouth et Paris.
Saisons Traduit de l’Americain par Martin Richet aux Editions Manuela Paris.
2013
Etel Adnan La-Bas,traduit de l›Américain par Marie Borel et Françoise valéry. Bordeaux, France: Editions de l›Attente
Voyage au Mont Tamalpaïs. traduit de l›Américain par l›auteur. Paris: Manuella Editions.
2012
Le Cycle des Tilleuls. Paris: Editions Al Manar.
2011
Crime D’Honneur. Théâtre.Trad. (de l’Américain) Michelle & Christophe Pellep. Paris: L’Arche,
Paris MisàNu. Trad. (de l’Américain) Martin Richet. Beirut: Tamyras.
2010
Sitt Marie-Rose. 2nd Edition.Beirut: Tamyras, Editeur.
Pina Bausch CaféMüller. Texte de Etel Adnan, Une Révolution appelée Pina Bausch. Paris: L’Arche: 2011.
A Deux Heures de l’Après- Midi.Najar. Tunis: Editions Tawbad. Bilingual edition French and Arabic.
Retour de Londres. Najar. Tunis: Editions Tawbad. Bilingual edition French and Arabic.
2007
Retour de Londres. Tunis: Editions Tawbad.
Vendredi 25 mars A Seize Heures.Tunis: Editions Tawbad.
2006
Transcendance. illustrépar Tibari Kantour. Paris: Al Manar.
A Deux Heures de l’Après-Midi.Tunis: Editions Tawbad.
2005
L’Incendie de la Bibliothèque de Baghdad. Paris: Al Manar.
Vendredi 25 mars A Seize Heures.Tunis: Editions Tawbad.
2004
Jennine.illustrépar R. Koreichi. Paris: Al Manar.
Le 27 Octobre 2003. Tunis: Editions Tawbad.
1998
Ce Ciel Qui N’est Pas.Paris: L’Harmattan.
1995
Voyage au Mont Tamalpais.Trad. (de l’anglais) Etel Adnan.Saint Benoit / Sault: Editions Tarabuste. Out of print
1985
L’Artisanat créateur au Maroc. Paris: Dessain et Tolrat.
1980
L’Apocalypse Arabe.Paris: Editions Papyrus. Réédition, 2011 par Tamyras
1977
Sitt Marie-Rose.Paris: Editions Des Femmes. Winner of Le Prix France-Pays-Arabes,1978 Réédition, 2011 par Tamyras
1973
Jébu suivi de L’Express Beyrouth – Enfer. Paris: P.J. Oswald.
ARABIC (In Translation)
BOOKS
2001
Kassa’ed Al Zaizafoun (Le Cycle des Tilleus). Trans. (from the English) Fayez Malas. Beirut: Dar Al Nahar.
2000
Hunaka. (There) Trans. Sargon Boulos, AlKamel Verlag.
al-Sitt Mari Ruz: riwayah. Translated with Jirum Shahin and Firyal Jabburi Ghazul. Al-Qahirah.
1998
An Mudun woua Nissa’. Trans. Daniele Saleh. Beirut: Dar Al Nahar.
1996
Sama’ Bila Sama’. (Ce Ciel qui n’est pas). Trans. (from the French) F. Malas. Beirut: Amouage Editions.
1994
Kitab al-bahr; kitab al-layal; kitab al-mawt; kitab al-nihayah.Trans. (from the French) with Abid Azarih. Beirut: Dar Amwaj.
1990
Yaoum AlKiyama Al Arabi. Trans. (from the French) Chawki Abdel Amir. Paris: Al Saqqar Editions.
1979
Sitt Marie-Rose. Trans. (from the French) Jerôme Chahine. Beirut: al-Mu-assasah al-Arabiyah lil-Dirasat wa-al-Nashr.
1973
Khams Hawas Li Mouten Wahed. Trans. (from the English) Youssef El Khal. Illustrations by Simone Fattal. Beirut: Gallery One.
Short stories and poems have appeared extensively in reviews since the 1960s, and can be found in Shi’r, Mawakef, Karmel and others, translated by the great Arab poets, Youssef El Khal, Adonis, Sargon Boulos, Chawki Abdel Amir, SaadiYoussef, Fawwaz Traboulsi, etc....
Collections
Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
New York Museum of Contemporary Art, USA
World Bank Collection, Washington D.C., USA
London World Bank Collection, Washington D.C, USA
Los Angeles Whitney Museum of American Art, USA
National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C, USA
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, USA
Flag Art Foundation, New York, USA
National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA
Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy
British Museum, London, UK
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, France
Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal
Mathaf, Doha, Qatar
Royal Jordanian Museum, Jordan
Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
New York Royal Jordanian Museum, Amman, Jordan
Tunis Modern Art Museum, Tunisia
Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Sharjah Art foundation, collection, Shatjah, United Arab Emirates
Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon,
KA Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Saradar Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Dar El Nimr, Beirut, Lebanon
The Collection of the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
The Birzeit University collection, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunisia
+–
Documents
Paris - Beyrouth : l’arrivée de l’abstraction dans l’art libanais d’après-guerre
Marina Bessières
Université Paris IV Sorbonne, French, 2018
Mémoire de recherche de Master 1: Sous la direction de Michel Gauthier rn
Etel Adnan and the Poetry of Her Abstract Landscapes
Phillip Barcio
ideelart.com, English, 2016
Etel Adnan by Lisa Robertson
Lisa Robertson
BOMB magazine issue #127, English, 2014
ETEL ADNAN In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country
Stacy Szymaszek
The Poetry Project, English, 2006
Etel Adnan (Etel Adnan, Le Maître de l’éclipse)
Elisabeth Lebovici
journals.openedition.org, English, 2016
Etel Adnan’s “There” : A Meditation on Conflict
Aftim Saba
Al Jadid, English, 1998
The Non-Wordly World: A Conversatoin with Etel Adnan
Kathleen Weaver
Poetry Flash, English, 1986
This is the revenge of the female artists
Marie Tomb
Gallery Magazine, English, 2019
Resistances of Literature: Strategies of Narrative Affiliation in Etel Adnan’s Sitt Marie Rose
Olivia C. Harrison
Columbia University, English, 2009
Artist Transforms Verse Into Visual Poetry
Daedalus Howell
San Francisco Chronicle, English, 1998
Etel Adnan: Poetry of Suffering
Joyce Wilson
mezzocammin.com, English/French
ON MARGINALISATION, ACTIVISM AND FEMINISM
Nayla Tamraz
Selections Magazine, English, 2018
"Unless You Change the World:" The Art and Thought of Etel Adnan
Reja-e Busailah
Pluto Journals, English, 1986
The Weavings of the Children of Harrania
Etel Adnan
UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center, English, 1970
1300 oeuvres DONATION CLAUDE & FRANCE LEMAND Une collection exceptionnelle rejoint le musée de l’IMA DOSSIER DE PRESSE
IMA Arabe
French
L’impossible mutation et le retour du frustré dans Sitt Marie Rose d’Etel Adnan
Talal Wehbe
LiCArC (Littérature et culture arabes contemporaines), n° 2, French, 2014
Square, Mountain, Square : Etel Adnan's Double Signs
Andrew Stefan Weiner
The Ninth Page : Etel Adnan Journalism, English, 1972
Loci of gaze – Lamentation in silence The poem Jennine of Etel Adnan –The performance of theatre Attis*
Dimitris Tsatsoulis
English/French
Zaha Hadid’s Permanent Journey
Etel Adnan
English
Tribute to Zaha Hadid
+–
Press
Artist and Poet Etel Adnan on How She Seeks Bliss Through Capturing the World’s Visual Beauty | Art for Sale | Artspace
Dylan Kerr
Artspace.com, English, 2018
Art Dubai was online only this year, and there were 53,520 visits
Alexandra Chaves
thenational.ae, English, 2020
Sharjah Museums Authority goes digital during Covid-19 crisis
TradeArabia News Service
English, 2020
PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS ETEL ADNAN
MAYMANAH FARHAT
artasiapacific.com, English, 2013
The 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize International Shortlist Includes Etel Adnan, Sharon Olds, More
HARRIET STAFF
poetryfoundation.org, English, 2020
ايتل عدنان في "قصائد الزيزفون". شعر يحتفي بالطبیعة وتجربة تصنع قصیدة خاصة
محمد الحجیري
الحیاة, Arabic, 2001
أبواب الإدراك الحسي" للرسّامات الفارسات إيتل عدنان وهوكيت كالان ولور غريب "
لور غريب
newspaper.annahar.com, Arabic, 2016
إيتل عدنان: أنا عابرة سبيل هويات عديدة
أحلام الطاهر
al-akhbar.com, Arabic, 2016
ETEL ADNAN & SIMONE FATTAL with Sara Roffino & Anna Tome
Sara Roffino & Anna Tome
brooklynrail.org, English, 2014
Power Couples in the Archives, Pt. 1: Etel Adnan and Simone Fattal
Marjorie Bryer
update.lib.berkeley.edu, English, 2019
Culture Vulture/Photo diary: Institut de Monde Arabe
anothereyeopens.com, English, 2015
Sea and Fog: The Art of Etel Adnan
Nana Asfour
theparisreview.org, English, 2012
Etel Adnan, the Eternal Voyager, Captured in a New Biography
Shirine Saad
hyperallergic.com, English, 2019
Time by Sarah Riggs, translated from the French written by Etel Adnan and Magnetic Equator by Kaie Kellough Win the 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize
griffinpoetprize.com, English, 2020
La donation Lemand enrichit lʼInstitut du Monde Arabe (IMA) de 1300 oeuvres et dʼun fonds de dotation
culture.gouv.fr, French
Donation Claude & France Lemand : une collection exceptionnelle entre au musée de l'IMA
imarabe.org, French, 2018
Etel Adnan at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA)
imma.ie, English, 2015
"I React to What is Happening in the World''
Vera Kern
en.qantara.de, English, 2012
A FRICHE WITH FLAIR: ‘Ici, Ailleurs’ at Marseille’s La Friche Belle de Mai
worldspinningme.wordpress.com, English, 2013
EXCLUSIVITÉ | Dans l’atelier d’Etel Adnan, entre peinture et poésie
connaissancedesarts.com, French, 2019
ETEL ADNAN WINS 2020 GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE
artforum.com, English, 2020
Etel Adnan’s paintings ask the question: What is painting?
Simone Fattal
tlmagazine.com, English, 2021
ETEL ADNAN Artwork
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