Born 1925 in Beirut, Lebanon. Died 2021 in Paris, France.
EDUCATION
Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
University of California, Berkeley, CA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 Etel Adnan: Between East and West, 2023 King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture, Dharhan, Saudi Arabia
2023 Painting into Space, The Bass Museum, Miami Beach, FL
Etel Adnan: Poetry of Colours, K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, Germany
2022 Etel Adnan: Colour as Language, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Behind the Horizon Line, TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Tenerife, Spain
Etel Adnan: Discovery of Immediacy, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
2021 Etel Adnan: Light's New Measure, Guggenheim Museum, New York
2020 Leporellos, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
2019 Etel Adnan et les Modernes, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Each Day is a Whole World, Aspen Museum of Art, Aspen, CO
2018 Etel Adnan: Talking to Flowers, Galerie Lelong & Co., Paris, France
Etel Adnan: New Work, SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA
Etel Adnan, Zentrum Paul Klee, Lucerne, Switzerland
The dazzling gesture, Jan Michalski Foundation, Montricher, Switzerland
Etel Adnan: Tout ce que je fais est mémoire, Chateau La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
A yellow sun A green sun a yellow sun A red sun a blue sun, Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA
Etel Adnan: Live is a Weaving, Galerie Lelong & Co, Paris, France
2017 Album à Dessins, Biblioteca Central, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations, Marseille Franc
Etel Adnan: Sea and Fog, Oakville Galleries, Ontario, Canada
2016 Etel Adnan, Institut du monde Arab, Paris, France
The Weight of the World, Serpentine Galleries, London, England
Etel Adnan, Paintings, Drawings, Tapestry, Writing, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
2015 Etel Adnan: La joie de vivre, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland
Nouvelles estampes, Galerie Lelong, Paris, France
Etel Adnan, Galerie White Cube, Hong Kong, China
Etel Adnan, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Etel Adnan, Galerie Lelong, New York, NY
2014 Etel Adnan: Writing Mountains, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
Etel Adnan, White Cube, London, England
Etel Adnan in All Her Dimensions, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY
cipM – Centre International de poésie, Marseille, France
2013 Etel Adnan, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Etel Adnan, Galleria Continua, San Giminiano, Italy
Words and Places: Etel Adnan, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA
2012 Etel Adnan, Works 1965 – 2012, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg, Germany
Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY
2010 Etel Adnan, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Beirut, Lebanon
Etel Adnan, Europie Gallery, Paris, France
2009 Bonnafont Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Etel Adnan, Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
Etel Adnan, Eileen Curtis Museum, Sausalito, CA
2006 Arte Mare, Bastia, Corsica, France
2004 Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
1992 Gallery 50x70, Beirut, Lebanon
1991 Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
20 ans, 20 artistes, L'Atelier, Rabat, Morocco; Mediatheque, Mureaux, France; Unesco, Paris, France
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
1990 Evenements urbains, Grenoble, France
Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy
Kufa Gallery, London, England
1989 Salazar Library, Univ. of California, Sonoma, CA
1988 Administration Bldg, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
1987 Samy Kinge Gallery, Paris, France
1986 Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, CA
1985 Perception Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1984 Perception Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1983 Perception Gallery, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA
Alif Gallery, Washington D.C.
1982 Al Sultan Gallery, Kuwait
1979 Asilah Festival, Morocco
1978 Galerie L'Atelier, Rabat, Morocco
1977 Galerie La Roue, Paris, France
1973 Dar el Fan, Beirut, Lebanon
1971 Sight & Insight, the Cannery, San Francisco, CA
1969 Dominican College gallery, San Rafael, CA
1968 Unitarian center, San Rafael, CA
1965 Karamanduca Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Mount Angel College Gallery, Mount Angel, OR
1964 Karamanduca Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1963 Dominican College Gallery, San Rafael, CA
1961 O'Hanlon Gallery, Mill Valley, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Arab Presences, Modern Art and Decolonisation: Paris 1908-1988, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
Probité de l’image, La Biennale d’Anglet, Villa Beatrix Enea, Anglet, France
Foreigner’s Everywhere, 60th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
The Journey Before Me: Etel Adnan, Michelle Blade, Kirsty Luck, Marin MOCA, Novato, CA
2023 What If Women Ruled the World? Part I, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
To Weave the Sky: Textile Abstractions from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, El Espacio 23, Miami, FL
Making Their Mark, The Shah Garg Foundation, New York, NY
In the Heart of Another Country: The Diasporic Imagination Rises, Sharjah Art Foundation,
United Arab Emirates
Etel Adnan & Simone Fattal: Voices without borders, KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
(Un)belonging, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
New Horizons, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands
L’amour, La mer, les Femmes, Villa Noailles, Toulon, France
Hans-Ulrich Obrist Archive, Chapter 1: Édouard Glissant, LUMA Westbau, Zurich, Switzerland
Endless, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Defiant Muses: Delphine Seyrig and the Feminist Video Collectives of 1970s and 1980s France,
Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
2022 Etel Adnan and Lynn Marie Kirby: THE WEATHER IS NOWADAYS CRAZY, Cushion Works,
San Francisco, CA
Shifting the Silence, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Courage Before Expectation, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY
2021 Suspension/Stillness, Carré d'Art, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Nîmes, France
The Rain Forever Will be Made of Bullets, Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
A Roof for Silence, Lebanese Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale 2021, Italy
Hiding in Plain Sight, Pace Gallery, New York, NY
Another Energy: Power to Continue Challenging, 16 Women Artists from around the World, Mori Art
Museum, Tokyo, Japan
When our eyes touch, Maison Louis Carré, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France
Coming to our senses, Kunsthalle, Helsinki, Finland
Ecrire c'est dessiner [Writing is Drawing], Centre Pompidou Metz, Metz, France
Elles font l'abstraction, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Guggenheim Bilbabo, Spain
Earthbound: Contemporary Landscape from the Roberts Institute of Art, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield,
United Kingdom
Horizons, Lévy Gorvy, Paris, France
New Prints and Editions, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
2020 25 Years of Mudam Collection, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
A Sun Yellow With Anger, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg, Germany
Red, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY (online exhibition)
Small Works, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY (online exhibition)
Drawing 2020, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY
Accelerate your escape, Gary Hume explores the Hiscox Collection, Whitechapel Art Gallery,
London, United Kingdom
Do it (Home), Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
TRANSFORMACIONES - Mujeres artistas entre dos siglos, Fundación CajaCanarias,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, NY
Etel Adnan, Kahlil Robert Irving, and Colter Jacobsen, Callicoon Fine Arts, New York, NY
There, Where We Promenade, Freelands Foundation, London, United Kingdom
Where Do You Want Ghosts to Reside?, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Where the Lemons Bloom..., Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg, Germany
Tales of Thread, Custot Gallery, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2019 Peindre la nuit, Centre Pompidou Metz, Metz, France
It’s Urgent! – Part II, Lumawestbau, Zurich, Switzerland
Downtown Painting, presented by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman Inc., New York, NY
Luogo e Segni, Palazzo Grassi, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Italy
Sophie Whettnall – Etel Adnan, La ville le stad, Brussels, Belgium
Alvaro Barrington: Artists I Steal From, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London, United Kingdom
Le monde n'est pas nécessairement un empire, Lille Métropole Musée d’art moderne, d’art contemporain
et d’art brut, Lille, France
Etel Adnan und Salomé Bäumlin, da Mihi Gallery, Bern, Switzerland
So wie wir sind 1.0, Weserburg | Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen, Germany
A la plume, au pinceau, au crayon: dessins du monde arabe, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Climbing through the tide, Kamel Lazaar Foundation, Tunis, Tunisia
At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance, Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
2018 Painting the night, Centre Pomidou Metz, Metz, France
Lydia Cabrera and Edouard Glissant: Trembling Thinking, Americas Society, New York, NY
Of the Self and Of the Other, Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, NY
Home Berirut. Sounding the Neighbors, MAXXI Museum, Rome, Italy
Hot Sun, Late Sun, Foundation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, France
Garden of Memory, Musee Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech, Morocco
Focus 2, Mathaf, Doha, Qatar
Melancholia, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, Belglium
2017 All the words for rock, Nature and Conflict, Visual Arts Center Fondacion Helga de Alvear, Caceres, Spain
Take Me (I’m Yours), Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan, Italy
From Ear to Ear to Eye, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, England
Three Women: Three Eyes on the World, Contemporary Art Center of the EAP, Chatellerault, France
Women to the Front, Lumber Room, Portland, OR
human· NATURE, Goya Contemporary, Baltimore, MD
Making Space: Womens Artists and Postwar Abstraction, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Color, Waddington Custot, London, England
L’emozione dei COLORI nell’arte, GAM, Castello di Rivoli, Italy
Etel Adnan | Gerhard Richter, The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY
2016 Outside, Karma Gallery, Amagansett, NY
Towards a Larger World, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
Looking at the World Around You, Fundación Santander, Madrid, Spain
2015 Intimacy in Discourse, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
Nel Mezzo del Mezzo, Palazzo Riso - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo
Follia Continua!, Le CENTQUATRE, Paris, France
Albert the kid is ghosting, The David Roberts Art Foundation, London, England
Too Early, too late. Middle East and Modernity, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy
Sharjah Biennial 12: the past, the present, the possible, Sharjah International Art Biennial, Sharjah,
United Arab Emirates
The Sea - Salut D'honneur Jan Hoet, PMMK - Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Belgium
Looking Back / The 9th White Columns Annual - Selected by Cleopatra's, White Columns, New York, NY
2014 Here and Elsewhere, New Museum, New York, NY
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
What Remains: Part II, Rose Issa Porjects, London, United Kingdom
The Printed Room: read the room/you’ve got to, SALTS, Birsfelden, Switzerland
A Special Arrow Was Shot In The Neck, The David Roberts Art Foundation, London, United Kingdom
Paysages, Entre Reel Et Imaginaire, Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France
Paysage Et Modernite Arabe, Espace Claude Lemand, Paris, France
5 billion solar years, Galerie Rainhard Hauff, Stuttgart, Germany
the secret world that exists right there in public, RAMPA Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
Rose, CEAAC - Centre européen d'actions artistiques contemporaines, Strasbourg, France
What We Want to Show, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, Germany
Poetry will be made by all, LUMAS Editions Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
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 Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany
The Emerald City, Thomas Solomon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Art from Lebanon - Modern and Contemporary artists: 1880 – 1975, Beirut Exhibition
Center, Beirut, Lebanon
De Menocchio, nous savons beaucoup de choses, Bétonsalon, Paris, France
Papierwelten, Galerie nächst St. Stephan - Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria
On the Edgware Road, Serpentine Gallery, London, United Kingdom
The Art of Friendship, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
2011 The Last Grand Tour, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
2009 Tafsir, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2007 5 Artists, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
5 Artists, The State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow, Russia
2006 British Museum, London, United Kingdom
2004 Palacio Reale, Naples, Italy
2003 Musée Municipal de Thionville, Thionville, France
Joerdxan National Gallery, Amman, Jordan
2001 Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris, France
L'art du Livre Arabe, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France
2000 Art Paris, Le Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
1998 Bradford-Smock Gallery, San Francisco, CA
London Artists' Book Fair, Barbican Center, London, United Kingdom
1997 London Artists' Book Fair, Barbican Center, London, United Kingdom
Bradford Gallery, San Anselmo, CA
Fine Arts Gallery, University of Arkansas, Lafayette, AR
1996 Book Art VIII, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
Andre Demedthuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium 1995 Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Inter-American Gallery, Dade Wolfson Campus, Miami, FL
Le Arie del Tempo, Studio Alaya, Genoa, Italy
1994 Forces of Change, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
4 Women Artists, Alif Gallery, Washington, DC
Galerie de Paperbusse, Ostende, Belgium
Harelbeke Demedthuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium
1993 André Demedthuis, Wielsbeke, Belgium
Galerie Natkin-Berta, Paris, France
1991 Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
20 ans, 20 artistes, L'Atelier, Rabat, Morocco; Mediatheque, Mureaux, France; Unesco, Paris, France
1990 Evenements urbains, Grenoble, France
Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy
AWARDS
2021 Lichtwark Prize
2014 Women Playwrights International Honours
Chavelier des Arts et des Lettres, France
Lifetime Achievement Award, Radius of Arab American Writers Inc. (RAWI)
2013 California Book Award for Poetry for Sea and Fog
LAMBDA Literary Award for Poetry for Sea and Fog
2010 Arab American Book Award for Master of the Eclipse, Arab American National Museum
PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award for Master of the Eclipse
1977 Amitié Franco-Arab Prize, Association de Solidarité Franco-Arabe, for Sitt Marie Rose
MONOGRAPHS
Etel Adnan: Tout ce que je fais est mémoire. Barcelona, Spain: AGPOGRAF, 2018.
Obrist, Hans Ulrich, Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Robert Grenier, et al. Etel Adnan: Weight of the
World. London: Serpentine Galleries and Koenig Books, 2016.
Etel Adnan. Paris: Galerie Lelong, 2015.
Premonition. Berkeley: Kelsey Street Press, 2014.
To look at the sea is to become what one is: An Etel Adnan Reader. Brooklyn & Callicoon,
New York: Nightboat Books, 2014.
The Ninth Page: Etel Adnan’s Journalism 1972-1974. CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary
Arts, 2013.
Homage to Etel Adnan. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 2012.
Sea and Fog. Callicoon, New York: Nightboat Books, 2012.
Etel Adnan: On Love and the Cost We Are Not Willing to Pay Today: 100 Notes, 100
Thoughts: Documenta Series 006. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2011.
Master of the Eclipse. Northampton: Interlink Books.Winner of the Oakland Pen Award, 2010.
Seasons. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 2008.
In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2005.
In/somnia. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 2003.
There in the Light and the Darkness of the Self and of the Other. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo
Press, 1997.
Paris, When It’s Naked. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 1993.
Of Cities and Women: Letters to Fawwaz. Sausalito: The PostApollo Press, 1993.
The Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the Voyage. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo
Press, 1990.
The Arab Apocalypse. Etel Adnan. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 1989.
Journey to Mount Tamalpais. Illustrated by Etel Adnan. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press,
1986.
Sitt Marie-Rose. Georgina Kleege. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 1982.
The Indian Never Had a Horse & Other Poems. Illustrated by Russell Chatham. Sausalito:
The Post-Apollo Press, 1985.
From A to Z. Sausalito: The Post-Apollo Press, 1982.
Five Senses for One Death. New York: The Smith, 1971.
Moonshots. Beirut: BEYROUTH, 1966.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, NY
Banco de Espana, Spain
Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, France
Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, Paris, France
Birzeit University Museum, Birzeit, occupied Palestinian territories
British Museum, London, England
Carré d'Art - Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes, Nîmes, France
Castello di Rivoli, Torino, Italy
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Fondation Luma, Arles, France
Fondation Saradar, Beirut, Lebanon
FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Frank F. Yang Collection, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
Huma Kabakcı Collection, Istanbul, Turkey
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, MA
Jordan National Museum of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
Kadist Art Foundation San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland
Kunstsammlung, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
LAM, Lille, France
M+, Hong Kong
Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö, Sweden
Musée National d'Art Moderne (MNAM), Paris, France
Musée National d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Tunis, Tunisia
Museo Helga de Alvear, Caceres, Spain
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, Tunis, Tunisia
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, Netherlands
National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, DC
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
New York Public Library, New York, NY
Nicolas Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Royal Jordanian Museum, Amman, Jordan
Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal
Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sursock Museum, Beirut, Lebanon
Tate, London, England
Tunis Modern Art Museum, Tunisia
UBS Art Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
World Bank Collection, Washington, DC
Written Art Collection, Ingelheim, Germany