Etel Adnan: Painting as Celebration, Writing as Resistance

Etel Adnan, born in 1925 in Beirut to Greek-Syrian parents, is a painter, poet, and writer whose multifaceted practice spans contemplation, resistance, and political engagement. She studied at the Sorbonne, Berkeley, and Harvard, taught philosophy in California, and returned to Lebanon in the 1970s, where she wrote her acclaimed novel "Sitt Marie-Rose" about the civil war. She now splits her time between Paris and Sausalito. Her paintings, characterized by pure colors applied with a palette knife, celebrate the world and are often small-format, executed in one sitting like poems. The recurring motif of Mount Tamalpais, visible from her Sausalito home, appears in many works. Her film "Motion," produced for documenta 13 and edited by Eugénie Paultre, features Super8 footage of natural cycles and urban views, with shots averaging seven seconds—her breath rhythm. Adnan's leporellos, begun in 1964, combine Arabic calligraphy with abstract signs. A book of conversations with Hans-Ulrich Obrist was published by Manuella Editions. Her writing serves as a tool for political resistance, addressing the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, and other conflicts.