Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

The remarkable Etel Adnan, who excels as a visual artist, and equally as a writer, is 93 years old. On September 1, 2018, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art opened an exhibition of her artwork entitled “New Work: Etel Adnan” which will be showing through January 6, 2019.

An exhibition of new work by an artist who is 93 year old. I hope Adnan is planning on breaking the record of artist and potter Beatrice Wood, who was still working after passing her 100^th birthday, and lived to be 105.

Note: this is an update of the original SHADOWLIGHT post from June, 2016.

Etel Adnan (1925 — ), poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and painter, was born in Beirut, Lebanon, the daughter of  a Greek Christian mother and a Syrian Muslim father. Her languages are Greek, French, English and Arabic. Much of her writing is in French and English.

In an interview with Lisa Robertson, Etel Adnan recalls her childhood, and her life-long fascination with light:

“I was an only child. I didn’t have brothers and sisters to play with, so the light coming in through the window was a great event for me. I played with that instead of playing with other children. It was my companion. Beirut is a very sunny city and there were very few cars when I grew up. That was a blessing, because there were people in the street. I remember trying to walk on my shadow. Shadows and light were two strong entities.”

“We owe life to the existence of the sun; therefore light is a very profound part of our makeup. It’s spiritual, in the way that even DNA is spiritual. What we call “spirit” is energy. It’s the definition of life, in one sense. Light, as an object, as a phenomenon, is magnificent. I am talking to you and the light coming in through the window has already changed. You go on the street and you look at the sky and it tells you what time it is. We are dealing with it constantly, and obscurity is also maybe its own light, because it shows you things. Obscurity is not lack of light. It is a different manifestation of light. It has its own illumination.”

After attending the Ecole Supérieure de Lettres de Beyrouth, she studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, the University of California at Berkeley, and Harvard University in the 1950s. Adnan taught philosophy at Dominican College, now named Dominican University of California (1958-1972).

During the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962) she had decided to stop writing in French, and took up painting. In response to the Vietnam War in the 1960s, she began writing poetry again, but in English.

In 1972, she moved back to Beirut and worked as cultural editor for two daily newspapers—first for Al Safa, then for L’Orient le Jour. She stayed in Lebanon until 1976, then returned to California, making Sausalito her home for some time, but with frequent stays in Paris.

Now in her 90s, Adnan still paints and writes. Her abstract paintings recently brought her late-in-life popularity in Europe. Adnan remains an outspoken feminist, member of the LGBT community, and opponent to oppression and violence. She lives in Paris with her partner, artist and writer Simone Fattal, who translated Adnan’s best-known novel, Sitt Marie Rose, into English.

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The struggle of Palestinian/Arab forces during the first years of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) inspired Adnan’s long poem, The Arab Apocalypse. Her searing imagery continues to reverberate in the continuing conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Here are three selections from The Arab Apocalypse: 

XXXVI  (36)

In the dark irritation of the eyes there is a snake hiding
In the exhalations of Americans there is a crumbling empire
In the foul waters of the rivers there are Palestinians
OUT OUT of its borders pain has a leash on its neck
In the wheat stalks there are insects vaccinated against bread
In the Arabian boats there are sharks shaken with laughter
In the camel’s belly there are blind highways
OUT OUT of TIME there is spring’s shattered hope
In the deluge on our plains there are no rains but stones

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