The poetic renderings of Etel Adnan’s art practice meander between painting and writing. For the past half-century, Adnan’s work as an artist, writer and thinker has offered a plethora of glimpses into a multiplicity of subjects: affairs of love, language and war have been recurring themes. Immersed in a medley of languages while growing up in Lebanon – including Greek, Turkish, Arabic and French – Adnan was able to shift between linguistic affinities. After studying philosophy at the Sorbonne, where she composed her first French poems, Adnan later studied in the USA, at the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University. She abandoned the use of French as a moral protest against France’s hostilities in Algeria, turning her focus to Arabic and began to paint and transcribe Arab poets, read Sufi poetry and create vibrantly coloured leporellos or concertina fold bookworks. Although she has exhibited widely, increased recognition followed her inclusion in dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany in 2012. In 2014, Adnan received France’s prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.