This untitled work by Etel Adnan was painted in 2014 and I had absolutely no idea what it was meant to be. It appears to be little more than bands of colour, two orange hills, a blue line and a green foreground. That completes my art review and I think we can all agree it has been an intellectually demanding paragraph.
As an aside, this is precisely the sort of thing that actually invites slightly dangerous thoughts in my mind which are mostly relating to ideas that I could have painted this If I had attempted something similar, I suspect I would have felt a growing need to add a tree, then a little bird, then perhaps a path, then possibly a distant cottage, until the whole thing had turned into a confused countryside scene with a slightly badly drawn craft beer bar in it. Adnan, by contrast, knew when to stop.
Adnan (1925-2021) was a Lebanese-American artist and she was known for artworks in this style. It’s a rather lovely looking painting in many ways if I don’t try and understand it, using bold colours and minimising on the faffing around. But it was the artist who I found particularly interesting and there’s a limit of what I can write about this artwork anyway.
She was born in Beirut to a Syrian Muslim father and Greek Orthodox mother, grew up across languages and cultures, studied philosophy in Paris, Berkeley and Harvard, then taught philosophy in California from 1958 to 1972. She also worked as a journalist and cultural editor for Al Safa in Beirut, writing political editorials and she also wrote for The Post-Apollo Press. I’d say that’s a high achiever.
That feels like quite a mix of different talents and I rather like that she taught philosophy for many years. It’s quite an appealing artwork in many ways, simplistic as it might be, but it was created by someone who clearly had a formidable talent. And it probably didn’t need a little bird, cottage or a craft beer bar.