Etel Adnan – Colour as Language (2021)

Video (7:27): Artist Etel Adnan (1925-2021) is famous for her abstract landscape paintings and her distinct use of colour. In one of her last interviews, she talks about her art, beauty, Vincent van Gogh and about colour in relation to nature.

About Etel Adnan (1925-2021)

‘Etel Adnan is famous for her abstract landscape paintings and her distinct use of colour. She worked intuitively to portray her personal experience of the landscape and convey the power of Nature through her art. Adnan gained wide recognition within the art world around 2012 but she was already a celebrated writer and poet long before that time. In her practice, writing and painting complemented each other and were closely connected, she said: I write what I see and I paint what I am. In the first retrospective of her work in the Netherlands paintings, librellos tapestries and literary works are seen alongside works of Vincent Van Gogh, showing their shared love of Nature, colour and words. Born in Beirut Adnan live in California for a long time. She spent the last years of her life with her lifelong partner Simone Fattal between Paris and the Coast of Bretagne. (…) Six months prior to the opening of her exhibition in November of 2021, Etel Adnan passed away.’ – Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

“Etel Adnan”, a biography of the artist written by Kaelen Wilson-Goldie (2018), inquires into the artist’s work as a shaman and activist.

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