• Born in Beirut, 1925, to Syrian and Greek parents
• Painter of radiant color fields and accordion-fold leporello books
• Gained worldwide recognition at dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012
Etel Adnan (1925 – 2021) was born in Beirut to a Syrian father and a Greek mother.
She studied philosophy in Paris and the United States and later taught in California.
In midlife she found her true medium. In the early 1970s she began to paint Mount Tamalpais in bold, radiant blocks of color and to create her accordion-fold leporellos—books where drawing and poetry unfold as one.
Adnan painted quietly for decades. Recognition came late but decisively.
Her breakthrough arrived in 2012, when dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel devoted a major presentation to her work.
Museums and collectors around the world soon followed, celebrating her as one of the great modern voices of the Arab world.
Her paintings are small yet expansive.
They compress sun and horizon into pure color, transforming memory into light.
She approached each canvas and each hand-painted book as a conversation between word and image.
Key works include her lifelong Mount Tamalpais series, the leporello books, and late color fields distilled to essential form.
“The world exists so we may write about it.” — Etel Adnan
Adnan’s life reads like a quiet epic: a philosopher who became a painter, an Arab woman who bridged continents and languages, an artist recognized worldwide only in her later years.
