HELEN CAMMOCK

WINNER OF THE MAX MARA ART PRIZE FOR WOMEN

‘Etel Adnan’s paintings speak of the beauty that exists in the world alongside the tragedy and decimation. I experience a calmness when I look at this – something that happens when I see, hear or feel something new yet somehow familiar – and there is a simplicity, an assuredness, that comes from the shape and line. The painting takes me outside of my own experience, but also speaks to the landscapes that have formed it. I first discovered Adnan in 2016 when I went to see her Serpentine retrospective, and I just stayed and stayed. I then met her very briefly; she was quiet, modest and warm. I don’t have a huge art-history background, so I respond to works intuitively and feel that all art has to teach me something – even if it is just about myself. And Adnan’s paintings do that.’ Helen Cammock’s exhibition ‘Che Si Può Fare’ is at the Whitechapel Gallery (www.white chapelgallery.org) until 13 October, and then the Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia,

Italy (www.collezionemaramotti.org).