Untitled, ca. 1995 – 2000
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
In Marin County, poet Etel Adnan met one of the most important people in her life: Mount Tamalpais.
While a philosophy professor at Dominican College from 1958–72, Adnan formed a tender relationship with the mountain visible from her studio window, writing poetry about it and painting it after taking up the medium. In 1986, Adnan published Journey to Mount Tamalpais, an illustrated book-length poem charting and holding her love for the mountain. She describes an obsession which took her by surprise: “I was addicted.”
Her paintings are varied, though the centered mountain is always recognizable. The peak is sometimes traced with a watercolor brushstroke, other times it emerges as a colorful patchwork in thick choppy oil paint applied with a palette knife, or rises as a radiant lump. In her illustrations, Adnan outlines the shape in black ink, or smears a murky ridge.
Each repetition is like a pilgrimage. “Year after year,” she writes, “…Tamalpais appeared as a constant point of reference, the way a desert traveler will see an oasis, not only for water, but as the very idea of home.” Adnan details the mountain’s shifting moods and feelings. Her assorted portraits record a loved one over decades; she bears witness. “Do not climb that mountain unless you know it needs you,” she wrote. After she left, the mountain never left her. It continued to appear in her paintings and writing until her death in 2021.