The Reality of Color

“The visual is a language that must be learnt too, as one learns French or English or Arabic,” said the artist and poet Etel Adnan in an interview earlier this year with Apartamento. “What I love about colours though is that we cannot own colour; we can only accept its reality.” If anyone could stake a claim on color, though, it would be Adnan, now ninety-five and continuing her relentless pursuit of a vocabulary all her own. Few other artists wield such a range of shades with her confidence; it seems nearly impossible that one could encounter her paintings and tapestries without feeling the slightest spark of joy at the wild, vibrant hues she conjures: pungent neon greens, charred oranges, and sad, bluish grays light enough to display the mark of the brush. “Seasons,” Adnan’s second solo exhibition with Galerie Lelong & Co. in New York, will be on view through December 23, 2020. A selection of images from the show appears below.

Etel Adnan, Au matin, 2017, wool tapestry, 56 1/4 x 78 3/4″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, L’Olivier, 2019, wool tapestry, 55 x 78 3/4″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, Planète 17, 2020, oil on canvas, 13 x 8 5/8″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, Terre de Feu, 2018, wool carpet, 69 x 90 1/2″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, Vignoble, 2018, tapestry, 59 x 73″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, Planète 16, 2020, oil on canvas, 13 x 8 5/8″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, Signes, 2015, ink on paper, book: 11 1/2 x 3 1/2″, full length: 165″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

Etel Adnan, Planète 12, 2020, oil on canvas, 13 x 8 5/8″. © Etel Adnan. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

“Seasons” will be on view at Galerie Lelong & Co. through December 23, 2020.

from The Paris Review https://ift.tt/3ozQJOX

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