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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Etel Adnan: Colour as Language

Etel Adnan, Untitled, 2010.

May 20 – Sept 4, 2022
Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Lebanese-American poet and painter Etel Adnan died last November at age 96 and the art world mourned. Known for landscape paintings of unembellished rapture, Adnan used palette knives to execute vibrant shapes that float buoyantly between scene and abstraction. She also made “leporello” works, painted illustrations folded into accordion-like booklets. Sometimes the booklets contain poems or fragments, while other times they open up into larger drawings. This exhibition places Adnan’s landscapes and leporellos alongside works by Vincent van Gogh. Both convey the power of nature, but in contrasting ways. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: Rémi Villaggi/Mudam Luxembourg