Talking Points: Etel Adnan
Explore this resource to help you talk about the work of painter Etel Adnan.
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Etel Adnan
‘Born in Beirut, Etel Adnan moved to California in the 1950s and built a painting practice inspired by her cross-cultural experiences and spiritual engagement with the natural world. She creates her intimate, small-scale compositions with a palette knife instead of a paint brush, which results in rich, geometric fields of color that evoke sunsets, valleys, and mountains. Mount Tamalpais, a peak in Marin County, California, has been a frequent subject. Adnan studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and established herself as a poet, academic, and essayist before she began to make art.’ – Artsy
Questions to Ask Students
In the first video, what similarities & differences did you see between Adnan’s work and the work of Van Gogh?
Choose a painting to show students and ask the following…
What can you see in Adnan’s painting? Describe the shapes and colours as well as the landscape.
What do you like / dislike about the painting?
What season do you think it was when Adnan painted the landscape?
What was the weather like that day? What makes you think this?
How does the painting make you feel?
Compare and contract two different paintings by Adnan.
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