Conceived for The Tinaia of Palazzo Al Bosco, a private estate in Tuscany dedicated to culture and contemporary art, the exhibition Notte al Palazzo celebrates the contributions of late Lebanese-American artist and poet Etel Adnan (1925 – 2021), capturing her passion for Tuscany’s landscapes. Curated by Laurence Dreyfus, the art exhibition on view from September 4, 2024 – July 31, 2025, offers a deep dive into Adnan’s fascination with the night, sunsets, twilight, the horizon and poetry, and features an exquisite selection of her paintings, drawings, prints and tapestries (most on loan from private collectors).
Specifically, Notte al Palazzo (which translates to 'Night at the Palace' in Italian) features the San Gimignano screens created in situ by the artist in 2014 in the Continua gallery space. It is now housed within the historic setting of La Tinaia Al Bosco, a former press house transformed into a contemporary exhibition space in Italy.
"From the sunset to the darkening twilight, the visitor is gradually immersed into the night, into Etel Adnan's universe, where colour becomes poetry, and words transform into images. Her works are accompanied by her texts—prose and poetry—carefully chosen by the curator to be displayed at the same level as the artworks, offering a new perspective on her work," the show’s press release states.
Night at the Palace takes inspiration from Adnan's Leporello La Nuit, a concertina-style artist book drawn from the collection of Eric and Caroline Freymond, the founders of Palazzo Al Bosco. Here, visitors traverse from sunset to darkening twilight with Adnan employing colour as a language and her words enquiring about the human condition and the reality of life and time. Her works are an ode to contemplation, an invitation to unite all entities that make us who we are, that constitute the world, life and death.
Among the key works on display, San Gimignano (2014) stands as a testament to Adnan's connection with Tuscany, a region whose golden light and undulating landscapes frequently appeared in her compositions. This screen-like work embodies her signature use of bold, luminous colour blocks, evoking a timeless, dreamlike quality.
"Are we a dream, a nightmare, an accomplishment? The desire for permanence has yielded to the eminence of the ephemeral. That’s why we cherish the breezes, the dance, the flames, or cinema: they vanish instantly. Being is a process we seek even as it already exists. We are this search, this warmth, this journey," states the Beirut-born artist (Saisons, Manuella Editions, 2016).
As the show's description relays, "In 2017, the collection of poems La Nuit by Etel Adnan was published by Éditions de l’Attente. The night holds a central place in the artist's work, a true fascination, as Hans Ulrich Obrist notes, a motif 'at the extraordinary intersection of poetry, prose and philosophy'. For Etel Adnan, the night is also a protest against forgetting, a constant return to mystery, a space 'to release the personal and collective memories we hold in our bodies, our minds, and our landscapes'… The innovative scenography conceived by Laurence Dreyfus alternates between paintings and poetry excerpts, elevating both aspects of the artist’s work to the same level of prominence."
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