#ArabAmericanArtist

[harvardfineartslib]

“I decided to use embroidery in my work after realizing that the language of painting is dominated by men.” – Ghada Amer

Ghada Amer (b. 1963) is an Egyptian-American contemporary artist who uses embroidery in her work. Amer’s work deals with issues of gender and sexuality, and she is known for highly layered embroidered images of women’s bodies often referenced from pornographic imagery.

Amer emigrated from Egypt to France at the age of 11 and currently lives and works between New York and Paris. In 1987, she attended a semester abroad program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and she learned about important women artists who were using different formal languages. After returning to France, Amer developed her own approach to painting, using embroidery and gel on canvas as her medium and creating her own “feminine language of painting.” (from an interview with Maura Reilly in 2010)

"Many of Amer's paintings make art historical references in subversive and humorous ways. White Girls and White-RFGA subtly makes racial commentary, critiquing whiteness as a convention while addressing Robert Ryman. Landscape with Black Mountains-RFGA conflates the female form as a pastoral setting.[SW1] ” (from the publisher’s note: Cheim &Read, 2018)

Image 1: Ghada Amer, photo by Nat Gory Image 2: “Belle” 2014, acrylic, embroidery, and gel medium on canvas, 72”x 64” Image 3: Detail Image 4: “The Fortune Teller” 2008, acrylic, embroidery, and gel medium on canvas, 50”x 60” Image 5: Book cover featuring detail from “White Girls” 2017, acrylic, embroidery, and gel medium on canvas. 64”x 72”

Ghada Amer New York, NY : Cheim & Read, 2018. HOLLIS number: 990153139110203941

Ghada Amer : rainbow girls New York : Cheim & Read, 2014. HOLLIS number: 990146953240203941

Ghada Amer : color misbehavior New York : Cheim & Read, 2010]. HOLLIS number: 990126578000203941

[harvardfineartslib]

April is Arab American Month and National Poetry Month.

“I write what I see and I paint what I am.” – Etel Adnan

Etel Adnan (1925 – 2021) was a Lebanese-American poet, philosopher, writer, and visual artist. Adnan had been painting for several decades and made visual works in a variety of media including artist’s books, films, and tapestries.

Adnan was born in Beirut, Lebanon to a Greek Catholic mother and a Muslim-Turkish father, who was a high-ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus, Ottoman Syria. She grew up speaking Greek and Turkish in a mostly Arabic-speaking society. After enrolling at a French Lebanese Catholic School at the age of five, her primary language became French and her early works were written in French. She also studied English in her youth, and most of her later work was written in English. Adnan studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard University, later teaching philosophy at San Rafael’s Dominican College from 1958 to 1972.

Adnan’s love of language and interest in Arabic calligraphy is evident in her visual art, especially in leporellos, little books with folded concertina-style pages. But color was also language to Adnan, and one can sense that in her paintings.

Later in her life, Adnan openly identified as lesbian. She was survived by her partner, Simone Fattal, who is also a visual artist.

The Fine Arts Library owns Adnan’s artist’s book entitled “The Book of the Sea.” The work is made up like a sample book of Arabic calligraphy handwritten by Adnan, presenting the poems in Arabic and in English, with the original text and translations facing each other.

The book of the sea Etel Adnan ; bound by Thomas Zwang. Livre de la mer. English & Arabic Poestenkill, N.Y. : Kaldewey Press, 2010. 1 volume (unpaged) ; 21 x 31 cm. Edition Kaldewey ; v. 53 English and Arabic HOLLIS number: 99156665172003941