The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf is currently showing the poet, painter, journalist and philosopher Etel Adnan. Together with the Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is hosting the first comprehensive monographic exhibition of Etel Adnan’s work in Germany.
Image above: Etel Adnan #1. Etel Adnan in her studio in Paris, 2014 © Copyright Galerie Lelong & Co.
Born in Beirut, Etel Adnan (1925-2021) is an important representative of modernism. Her artistic and literary work is characterised by a great and lived exchange between the Arab and Western worlds.
The work of the poet, journalist, painter and philosopher, who spent her life between Lebanon, France and California, combines very different art forms, media, languages and cultures. After Algeria’s war of independence (1954-1962), Adnan refused to continue working in French and showed solidarity with Algeria: “I didn’t need to write in French anymore, I wanted to paint in Arabic.” Her political clarity, as well as the close connection between writing and painting, has become a key feature of her oeuvre. The exhibition at K20 presents works from all her creative phases: Paintings, drawings, tapestries, leporellos and texts.
An exhibition of the Lenbachhaus, Munich, and the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf, curated by Sébastien Delot, director LaM, Lille métropole musée d’art moderne d’art contemporain et d’art brut.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Rudolf August Oetker Foundation.
WHERE?
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
Grabbeplatz 5
40213 Düsseldorf
WHEN?
Exhibition days:
Saturday, 01. April – Sunday, 16. July 2023
Tuesday – Sunday, public holiday 11 am – 6 pm
Monday closed
