Etel Adnan, born in 1925, established herself as a writer and poet before turning to the visual arts in the 1960s.

In her first solo exhibition, she returned to poetry, but of colour and shape, producing watercolours bound into concertinas of accordion-like folios. Some works are impressionistic, painted without words or texts; others play with words and names or hum with energy from more vigorous paint strokes.