Google is celebrating the career of poet and artist Etel Adnan by giving her the Doodle honour on Monday.
The cartoon of the American-Lebanese creator at work is displayed on the homepage of the search engine for users in selected countries on April 15.
Google presents its Doodle several times a year to honour the great and the good, often focusing on unsung heroes and heroines. Past people to feature include Lola Beltrán and Casimir Funk.
“This Doodle celebrates Lebanese American poet and artist Etel Adnan, who is considered one of the most accomplished Arab American authors of her era,” a statement reads.
April 15 has significance as it is the date she hosted her first solo exhibition in San Rafael, California, in 1955.
The Doodle was drawn by contributor Olivia Huynh.
Celebrating Etel Adnan
— Farhan Aslam (@looniesavvy_) April 15, 2024
Todays Doodle celebrates Lebanese American poet and artist Etel Adnan, who is considered one of the most accomplished Arab American authors of her era.#doodle #arab #america #poet pic.twitter.com/UEDJZodHmI
Who was Etel Adnan?
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1925, Adnan had a diverse upbringing and moved to France aged 23 to study philosophy and the arts, before moving on to the University of California Berkeley, and Harvard.
She eventually returned to Lebanon to serve as a journalist and editor for the newspapers Al Safa and L’Orient le Jour, where she helped develop a section dedicated to culture in Lebanon and the Middle East, Google states.
Her art was inspired by her native country and also that of California, where she lived and worked from the 1980s before moving to Paris towards the end of her life.
As well as her renowned visual art, she won acclaim for her novels and poems which explored identity, memory, feminism, and the human experience.
Her written works include Moonshots (1966), Sitt Marie Rose (1978), Paris, When It’s Naked (1993), and Master of the Eclipse (2009).
She died, aged 96, in 2021 in Paris. Her partner was fellow Lebanese-American artist Simone Fattal, who is still living and working in Paris aged 82.
The Doodle appears in countries including the US, Lebanon, and Morocco as well as the UK.
“She leaves behind a rich legacy of artistic and literary achievements that continue to capture and inspire audiences today,” Google added.
