Untitled 2014

Etel Adnan made this untitled painting using oil on canvas to create a small-scale, intimate experience. Imagine her in the studio, maybe in Paris, applying these colours with a deliberate hand – that golden yellow, earthy brown, and soft blue. I love the way she's built up the composition with these stacked horizontal blocks, kind of like a landscape with a horizon line. I wonder if she was thinking of home, of Beirut, and its landscapes when she made this. It reminds me of Agnes Martin, how Martin found her way through colour and geometry too. Look at how the light catches on the surface, there’s this real physicality to the paint. And those little circles on the top half, like suns or maybe even memories floating in the sky. Adnan’s work always feels so connected to her life. She’s not just painting shapes but embodying feelings, and there's something about the simplicity of the forms that makes it so powerful. It’s a little poem on canvas.