Between 2014 and 2021, Etel Adnan produced no fewer than 71 engravings, all published by Galerie Lelong & Co. All her favourite themes are represented here: from the Matissian-outlined fruit stands, the now famous Mount Tamalpais that she celebrated all her life, to the inkwells and colour pots that are the subject of many of her leporellos, and the last group of paintings "Discovery of Immediacy", to the abstract landscapes in soft colours that are the heart of her painted work, to the compositions of a free and sensitive geometry. In short – the whole range of subjects that Adnan explored in her late work is summarised here. Finally, for several of her poems published by Galerie Lelong, Adnan produced a small engraving to accompany the first edition in a slipcase: "L'Apocalypse arabe", "L'Express Beyrouth-Enfer", "Je suis un volcan" and"Fil du temps".
Adnan took pleasure in creating watercolour versions in her own hand of some of her black and white engravings. In a luminous little text, the artist explains the pleasure she took in this work in collaboration with a master printer, who temporarily relieved her from the solitude of painting. In so doing, she also declares a commitment to an approach to art that reaches a wider audience than the necessarily narrow one of paintings.
To coincide with this exhibition, Galerie Lelong is publishing a complete catalogue of Etel Adnan's engravings.
