Etel Adnan et les Modernes

Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean presents a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the poet and painter Etel Adnan (b. 1925, Beirut). Since the 1960s, Adnan has created a body of work that makes significant links between image and text; Eastern and Western cultures; Modernism and contemporary art. Her work reflects a dynamic relationship with the world through themes of landscape, abstraction, colour, writing, memory and history. 

Developed in partnership with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, who presented a first version of the exhibition in 2018, Etel Adnan et les Modernes provides an overview of Adnan’s visual work from the early 1960s to the present day. At its heart lies the artist’s relationship with the work and ideas of some of the key protagonists within modern art, first and foremost Paul Klee (b. 1879, Münchenbuchsee; d. 1940, Locarno) who she once described as “the first painter [she] fell in love with.“ In an interview conducted in 2012, Adnan described an obsession with his work: “By obsessed, I mean that his paintings put me in a state of ecstasy. They possessed me. In Kairouan [in Tunisia], he wrote, ‘Colour and I are one.’ And I understood that he was speaking of revelation.”

The exhibition at Mudam assembles a broad spectrum of Adnan’s paintings, tapestries and works on paper. They are presented in dialogue with works by Klee, paintings by Wassily Kandinsky (b. 1866, Moscow; d. 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine), Nicolas de Staël (b. 1913, Saint Petersburg; d. 1955, Antibes) and Georges Mathieu (b. 1921, Boulogne-sur-Mer; d. 2012, Boulogne-Billancourt), and tapestries designed by the architect Ramses Wissa Wassef (b. 1911, Cairo; d. 1974, Egypt). The film Ismyrne (2016) by the artists Joana Hadjithomas (b. 1969, Beirut) and Khalil Joreige (b. 1969, Beirut) gives contextual insight to Adnan’s life and work via an intimate portrait. 

Another aspect of the exhibition focuses on recent and abstract works by Etel Adnan. The artist describes these paintings as “inner landscapes,” drawing on her recollections of places she has visited. These works are placed in dialogue with others by the painter and poet Eugénie Paultre (b. 1979, Paris) and sculptor Simone Fattal (b. 1942, Damascus) with whom she maintains Adnan close connection.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Mudam Luxembourg, Zentrum Paul Klee and Éditions Dilecta. Available in English at mudamstore.com.

Curator: Sébastien Delot, assisted by Sarah Beaumont and Grégoire Prangé

The exhibition Etel Adnan et les Modernes at Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean is organised in collaboration with the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.

Events
Poetry Readings
June 16 + September 8, 2019, 3pm, French
Sophie Langevin reads Etel Adnan

July 28 + September 8, 2019, 11:45am, English
Elsa Rauchs reads Etel Adnan

Workshop Visual Poetry
September 7–8, 2019, 2–5pm

Detailed programme at: mudam.com

Also on view:
Bert Theis, Building Philosophy - Cultivating Utopia
through August 25, 2019

Danh Vō: The Mudam Collection and Pinault Collection in dialogue in Luxembourg
through August 25, 2019

LaToya Ruby Frazier
through September 22, 2019

​Nairy Baghramian, Privileged Points
through September 22, 2019

Mudam Collection
Vivian Suter, Nisyros
through September 15, 2019

Subjects of Life
through September 22, 2019


Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean opened in 2006 in a purpose-built building designed by the renowned Sino-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei and is located in the Park Draï Eechelen, overlooking the historic city of Luxembourg. Through its collection, exhibitions, artistic and educational programmes and partnerships, Mudam Luxembourg aims to advance its mission to present the most relevant contemporary art of our time to the largest possible public.