The exhibition, This Beautiful Light, is presented by White Cube in celebration of the centenary of the birth of Etel Adnan (1925–2021), a leading artistic and literary voice of Arab-American culture. This poet, novelist, journalist, and artist grew up speaking Arabic and Greek at home, and was educated in French and English. She began to paint in the late 1950s, while working as a professor of philosophy in Northern California. It was a period when, in protest of France’s colonial rule in Algeria, she renounced writing in French and declared that she would begin “painting in Arabic”—making luminous abstractions of the view of Mt. Tamalpais (below) from her home in Sausalito, California. While Adnan’s writings have been unflinching in their critique of war and social injustice, the tranquility of her bright, sensuous paintings is miraculous considering the violence that colored much of her experience of the world.

Adnan’s paintings frequently depict the Mediterranean seen from Lebanon and later, Mount Tamalpais, just north of San Francisco, the peak that was to her as Mont Sainte-Victoire was to Cézanne. Adnan’s later paintings of Tamalpais, many of which are smaller than a placemat, project an intensity that conveys the scale of their maker’s intention. Highly textured colors of earth, water and sky, thickly applied with a palette knife, cause these small abstractions to affirm a sense of wonder and joy far beyond their size. Adnan’s imagery hovers between the pure abstraction of a Notan landscape study and the earthbound colors of its actuality—happily leaving much for the viewer’s imagination to add in.

For Adnan, the mountain was fused with her memory, and reveling in the awe of nature was also a way to express her inner life.  Her visual art is an intensely personal distillation of her faith in the human spirit and the beauty of the natural world. She has stated, “It seems to me I write what I see, paint what I am.” In a biographical essay, Adnan wrote, “Furiously, I became a painter. I immersed myself in that new language. Abstract art was the equivalent of poetic expression; I didn’t need to use words, but colors and lines. I didn’t need to belong to a language-oriented culture but to an open form of expression… My spirit was loose.”

The places Adnan conjures up are real but can’t be visited, because they exist only in her mind’s eye, but her paintings offer the possibility of another world. Despite their modest scale and formal economy, these paintings and drawings are potent visualizations of the sensations of memory and perception that shape her inner life. This spirituality is rooted in the ideals of the Romantic tradition we can experience in the work of Caspar David Friedreich, currently on view at The Met. 

Like most woman artists, Adnan had to wait for the art world to stamp her work approved; this eventually took place after a presentation at Documenta 13, in Kassel, Germany in 2012, when she was 86. After that, galleries seemed eager to make up for lost time, exhibiting her work frequently. In 2021 “Light’s New Measure,” a survey at the Guggenheim of Adnan’s paintings, tapestries, and accordion books of handwritten poetry mingled with watercolor abstractions—the leporellos she had been making since the 1960— proved to be a bittersweet moment, arriving in New York just a month after she passed away in Paris, at age 96. 

The luminosity of her imagery, together with her distinctive poetic voice, proved that romantic ideals, when combined with a global individualism, can be solidly realizd. In a biographical essay, Adnan wrote, “Furiously, I [until then a writer]  became a painter. I immersed myself in that new language. Abstract art was the equivalent of poetic expression; I didn’t need to use words, but colors and lines. I didn’t need to belong to a language-oriented culture but to an open form of expression… My spirit was loose.” This Beautiful Light includes works across all mediums the artist held at her command including paintings in oil on canvas, watercolor in leporello, tapestry, and a large-scale work in ceramic (top). Above: “Forêt” (2019), tapestry

This Beautiful Light continues through March 1 at White Cube Gallery, 1002 Madison Avenue, New York, NY Info

Save the date: February 27-March 1, Symposium: Etel Adnan | In the Rhythms of the World

Organized to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth, ‘Etel Adnan: In the Rhythms of the World (a symposium)’ will bring together old friends, specialists and admirers of Adnan’s work. The event will feature talks, poetry readings and musical performances, each engaging with various facets of her literary and visual practice. This event is free and open to the public with RSVP. Find out more.