ETEL ADNAN : The Weight of the World

8 Jun-11 Sep 2016

Overview

Etel Adnan (b. 1925, Beirut, Lebanon) is an internationally acclaimed painter, essayist and poet whose parallel practices in painting and writing are underpinned by an intense engagement with the world and modern history. In the late 1950s, Adnan began painting, embracing abstract colour and renouncing writing in French as a gesture of resistance to the brutality of the Algerian War. Her vibrant, expressive, largely abstract compositions often suggest landscapes or reference specific places. Adnan has also made rugs and accordion-fold books that meld visual and verbal observation. Her writing explores the political and personal dimensions of violence and articulates her experience of exile from familiar landscapes and languages. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery will host Adnan’s first solo exhibition in a UK public institution and will present a survey of her work as a visual artist.