Untitled 2014

Etel Adnan made this small, untitled painting on canvas, and the surface is very present. It’s like she wanted to capture a memory, a landscape perhaps, with just a few simple moves. The paint isn't trying to hide itself; it's not blended into oblivion. You can see the strokes, the little ridges where the brush was dragged across the surface. That teal at the bottom feels cool and quiet, like a muted ocean. Above, that band of ochre and then the thin red line, it’s like a horizon, right? And then the sun, or maybe the moon, hanging in the yellow sky. I think she’s in conversation with artists like Agnes Martin or Hilma af Klint, stripping things down to their essence but keeping that personal, human touch. It’s a painting that embraces the beauty of simplicity, a reminder that sometimes, less really is more.