Untitled 1983

Look closely and you might feel like you are flying over patchwork farmland in the spring. This painting by Etel Adnan is built from small blocks of color, mostly soft greens with surprise pops of red, blue, and gold scattered throughout. The brushstrokes are thick and visible, giving the whole surface a textured, hand-made feeling. There is no single subject here, just a lively grid of shapes that overlap and bump against each other like fields, gardens, and rooftops seen from above.

Etel Adnan was a Lebanese-American artist and writer who did not start painting seriously until her thirties, and she kept creating right up until her death in 2021 at the age of 96. She often worked quickly with a palette knife, building her pictures from memory and emotion rather than copying exactly what she saw. Color was her real language, and she once said that painting let her express joy in a way words could not. This untitled work from 1983 captures that spirit nicely, feeling warm, calm, and full of quiet energy all at once.