Poet Etel Adnan, 91, produces 20 fresh paintings for new exhibition at Serpentine Sackler Gallery

Lebanese-American poet and visual artist Etel Adnan, 91, has produced 20 new paintings now on display at the Serpentine Galleries in Kensington.

The Weight of the World exhibition showcases the canvasses produced this year, alongside a collection of her poetry, films and tapestries.

Etel Adnan was born in 1925 in Beirut, Lebanon, and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris before becoming a powerful voice in the poets’ movement against the Vietnam War.

The Serpentine Galleries’ exhibition is Adnan’s first ever solo exhibition in a UK public institution.

Curator Rebecca Lewin told London Live: “It was while she was living in California and studying philosophy that she started painting.

“She’s possibly better known, up until recent years, for her writing but really in the last 10 or 20 years her painting has become more discovered and this is the first UK public institution show of her work.

“She uses the painting and visual art very much as a celebration of nature and of beauty.

“The extraordinary thing about these works is not just the extraordinary vitality of the colour and the simplicity of the forms she used, but also how much they really sum up so many of the elements that go into all of the landscapes and abstract compositions she’s made throughout her career.”

Entry to the exhibition, which runs until September 11, is free.