etel adnan
Notte al Palazzo
05 September 2024 — 01 March 2025
NOTTE AL PALAZZO
The exhibition *Notte Al Palazzo* shines a light on the work of Etel Adnan, the American-Lebanese artist
and poet whose practice transcends the boundaries between visual and literary arts. Born in Beirut in
1925 to a Greek Christian mother and a Turkish Muslim father, Adnan grew up in a multilingual environment,
speaking Greek, Turkish, and Arabic before learning French at the Sorbonne and later English at Berkeley
and Harvard. A cosmopolitan at heart, she lived between Paris, Beirut, and California, notably in Sausalito,
with the view of Mount Tamalpais, a major source of inspiration for her work. A staunch advocate for peace,
feminism, and ecology, Adnan left an indelible mark far beyond artistic circles, achieving international
recognition at Documenta in Kassel in 2012 at the age of 87.
The exhibition emphasizes the profound relationship between her literary and visual creations, which Adnan
herself described not as separate entities, but as “equivalences.” In *Writing is Drawing*, she explains:
“These are not illustrations [...] they are rather equivalences, both a response and a counterpoint to the
text, not only on a structural level but as a way to elicit an intellectual and emotional response to poetry.”
Her paintings and poems dialogue with each other, creating a new artistic entity where words and images
blend to express deep and universal emotions.
The exhibition opens with one of her early major works, *La Mer à Beyrouth* (1974), which marks the
beginning of her poetic and artistic journey. In *I Am a Volcano*, Etel Adnan confides: “I started writing
poetry because, as a teenager, nothing else interested me. It was in Beirut, and for a time, the sea saturated
everything. [...] The sea and the sun were the first woman and the first man, the first beings, the first
presences to me, and that was my first poem.” She goes on to explain that this intimate connection with
the sea awakened her desire to write: “The sea compelled me to express myself. As soon as something
appeared omnipresent and essential to me, I wrote about it, and these writings became poems.” This
powerful connection to the natural elements is mirrored in her visual work, where landscapes and vivid
colors convey the intensity of her emotions in the face of nature.
Tuscan landscapes, dear to the artist, appear in many of her paintings. They unfold in simple shapes, bathed
in vibrant colors, with particular attention to the nocturnal light and celestial bodies. Night becomes a
contemplative space conducive to introspection, where light and darkness intertwine to reveal the depth of
human emotions. Adnan herself remarked: “Poetry is small and dense, and my canvases are like that. [...]
I think I paint like I write poetry.” (*In Conversation with Sabine Schaschl*, 2015).
The exhibition also showcases the *leporellos*, accordion-style books of Japanese origin that perfectly
embody the fusion of painting and poetry in Etel Adnan’s work. Their zigzag structure allows the reader
to simultaneously journey through both a visual and literary narrative. This format recalls her alabaster
screens depicting the Tuscan village of San Gimignano, reinforcing the idea of a journey through both
internal and external landscapes.
Let's go
via Faltignano 38
50026 San Casciano in Val di Pesa / Italia
Enquire
Felipe Moura +39 331 734 1574
info@latinaia-albosco.com
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