The Beauty of Light
An Interview
Published on 2. May 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
144 pages
978-1-64362-211-8 (ISBN)
Description
A lively and spontaneous interview with Etel Adnan about her absolute belief in the beauty of the world and the beauty of art.
In these interviews with journalist and editor Laure Adler, conducted in the months before her death in November 2021, Etel Adnan traces with depth and emotion the founding experiences of her artistic approach, between poetry and painting. From her youth in Lebanon, her American years in New York and California, to her late recognition at Documenta in 2012 and her life in France, the conversation covers philosophy, painting, poetry and aesthetics, as well Adnan's views on history and politics in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. These transcripts usher the experiences and observations of Adnan's long and rich life into an intimate and spontaneous conversation with a dear friend-a window on the "universe" of her imagination.
In these interviews with journalist and editor Laure Adler, conducted in the months before her death in November 2021, Etel Adnan traces with depth and emotion the founding experiences of her artistic approach, between poetry and painting. From her youth in Lebanon, her American years in New York and California, to her late recognition at Documenta in 2012 and her life in France, the conversation covers philosophy, painting, poetry and aesthetics, as well Adnan's views on history and politics in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. These transcripts usher the experiences and observations of Adnan's long and rich life into an intimate and spontaneous conversation with a dear friend-a window on the "universe" of her imagination.
Reviews / Votes
"In perception, redemption," Adnan declares in this assemblage of mystical, metaphysical ideas and aphorisms, often in conversation with the dead. 'We have to say yes to that fate,' she writes of mortality, 'and it's hard, the hardest.'" -Matt Flegenheimer, The New York Times "This intimate, extended conversation, conducted with journalist and producer Laure Adler, opens up Adnan's personal views on various topics: war, history, philosophy, painting, poetry, and feminism. " -Christina Chatzitheodorou, Asymptote"Rather than pin down or bemoan our lack of perceptual surety, Adnan builds a nebula for readers to drift about. Her pages are a place for us to submerge, to question ourselves and each other even as we want to reach out and affirm that yes, we saw some nice fish down there-the colors really set off the light." -K.B. Thors, Lambda Literary
"Given the uncanny breadth of her art, Adnan is a modern-day inheritor of 20th-century avant-garde movements like Dada and surrealism in which people moved fluidly between writing and art making in one recklessly inventive swoop." -Negar Azimi, The Wall Street Journal
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 202 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
220 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64362-211-8 (9781643622118)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Etel Adnan was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1925. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, U.C. Berkeley, and at Harvard, and taught at Dominican College in San Rafael, California, from 1958-1972. In solidarity with the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962), Adnan began to resist the political implications of writing in French and became a painter. Then, through her participation in the movement against the Vietnam War (1959-1975), she began to write poetry and became, in her words, "an American poet." In 1972, she returned to Beirut and worked as cultural editor for two daily newspapers-first for Al Safa, then for L'Orient le Jour. Her novel Sitt Marie-Rose, published in Paris in 1977, won the France-Pays Arabes Award and has been translated into more than ten languages. In 1977, Adnan re-established herself in California, making Sausalito her home, with frequent stays in Paris. Adnan is the author of more than a dozen books in English, including Journey to Mount Tamalpais (1986), The Arab Apocalypse (1989), In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country (2005), and Sea and Fog (2012), winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry and the California Book Award for Poetry. In 2014, she was awarded one of France's highest cultural honors: l'Ordre de Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. Many of her poems have been put to music by Tania Leon, Henry Treadgill, Gavin Bryars, Zad Moultaka, Annea Lockwood, and Bun Ching Lam. Her paintings have been widely exhibited, including Documenta 13, the 2014 Whitney Biennial, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, The New Museum, and Museum der Moderne Salzburg. In 2014, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art mounted a retrospective of her work. She died November 14, 2021.
Laure Adler was born in 1950. She has written several books on the history of women, and a prizewinning biography of Marguerite Duras. She has worked in publishing and as the Director of the France Cultur radio station. She now works as a journalist and broadcaster.
Ethan Mitchell (b.1977) is an editor and translator living in Berkeley, CA.
Author residence: Paris, France
Laure Adler was born in 1950. She has written several books on the history of women, and a prizewinning biography of Marguerite Duras. She has worked in publishing and as the Director of the France Cultur radio station. She now works as a journalist and broadcaster.
Ethan Mitchell (b.1977) is an editor and translator living in Berkeley, CA.
Author residence: Paris, France