Lot 9
  • 9

Etel Adnan

Estimate
25,000 - 30,000 GBP
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Description

  • Etel Adnan
  • Untitled
  • oil on canvas 
  • 23 by 30.5cm.; 9 by 12in.
  • Executed in 1990.

Provenance

Gifted directly from the artist to the present owner in 2002

Exhibited

London, Kufa Gallery, Etel Adnan, 1990 

Condition

Condition: This work is in very good condition. Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is accurate, with the overall tonality being softer in the original work.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

In her landscape paintings, Adnan uses the paint to reach its fullest opaque density; heavy impasto is a must. She aims to have the oil paint establish its own presence and give physical weight to the abstract shapes and forms. There is a spatial energy in the relationship of colours with one another, a bit like music - Adnan always tried to juxtapose colour notes with contemporary jazz music which she has been fond of. 

While her vibrant, expressive paintings do not make explicit references to political and social issues, they reflect Adnan’s call for an intense engagement with the world. The rapid, thick strokes of her palette knife chronicle scenes of personal importance to the artist, particularly Mount Tamalpais near her home in California as well as the Mediterranean Sea with some painted from memory. The landscape’s distinct forms—mountains, horizon, sea, sun—are knitted together, recording minute shifts of sensory experience and offering an empathetic response to the natural world against to violence and indifference.