This is Etel Adnan. Famous for her abstract landscape paintings... and her distinct use of colour. She worked intuitively... to show her personal experience of a landscape... and convey the power of nature through her art. Adnan gained wide recognition in the art world... around 2012... but 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, I paint what I am.' In the first retrospective in the Netherlands... her paintings, leporellos... tapestries and literary work... are seen alongside the work of Vincent van Gogh. Showing their shared love of nature... colour and words. Born in Beirut... Adnan lived 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 Brittany... where we met her for what would turn out to be... one of her last interviews. Six months prior to the opening of her exhibition... in November 2021, Etel Adnan passed away... at the age of 96. Oeh la la, it's... It's huge. I am very sensitive to beauty. We don't speak of beauty anymore. In art criticism, we don't mention beauty. It's 'demodé', out of fashion. But it isn't really, beauty... is an inner sense. And it makes us happy. It's not complicated. We need it. It's more than shapes and colour. It's more than what you see. Your total inner world. It's like Van Gogh, in fact. If you look attentively... you can feel his inner problems. His fights. You know him intimately more... through his canvases... than if you were talking with him. In the 1950s, Etel Adnan moved to California... where she started painting. The Californian sunsets, valleys and mountains... inspired her geometric fields of colour... with the Mount Tamalpais as her most loved... and frequent subject. It's a mountain... that I used to see through my window. I couldn't escape it. One day, they asked me: Who is the most important person... you ever met? And I said it was the mountain. I discovered... that it's never two minutes the same. When a cloud goes in front of the sun... it's as if somebody turns off a light... and everything changes. So you realise... that we are in a constant change and turmoil. There is no total rest. Not only for us... but for the world. Nature is also constantly changing... like we are. It is the power... of nature... that comes to us through colour. What does colour do to us... in relation to nature? And I said: It is as if nature... is alive and conscious... and wants to affirm its presence... its power. It is colour that makes us realise... the intensity... of nature. If you feel something strongly... it comes out, whether you want it or not. You can't escape that. So I do respond... to the beauty of the place... of people, of language, of colour. And I feel... it comes, whether I want it or not. When we work... our whole being participates in what we do. It's more than just thinking. It's who you are... you can't escape from. It's going to follow you like your shadow. And it will come out. So let it come out.
