Huguette Caland

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Huguette Caland spent much of her early adulthood taking care of her father as he aged. As the daughter of the first president of the Lebanese Republic, Bechara el-Khoury, she grew up with the pressure of being part of a politically and socially engaged family and found it difficult to find her own identity. Only after her father died in 1964 did she start her studies at the American University of Beirut and start to paint seriously. She majored in fine arts and graduated in 1968. In pre-war Beirut, she moved in cosmopolitan artistic circles and became something of a symbol of female emancipation in the Arab world. After her first exhibition in Beirut in 1970, Caland decided to move to Paris. It was during this time that a sense of her liberation appeared in her work. Experiencing a new city freed her from the responsibilities and opinions imposed on her as a prominent politician’s daughter. While in Paris, Caland led a passionately bohemian life. “The lines in her drawings became thinner, more sophisticated,” states her daughter Brigitte Caland. “It was a different moment of her life. The colours changed. She did a lot of erotic works she would not have done in Lebanon. It freed her, being in Paris.” Caland’s more recent work often incorporates mixed media, as seen in the work The Purple One. She uses oils and ink to evoke the craftsmanship and texture of a carpet or tapestry, employing lines that resemble patchwork and stitching. Although they resemble textiles, they are not devoid of human presence, and their content is related to the artist’s personal life. Much like her childhood home, her Los Angeles studio was open to friends and visitors; she often hosted prominent American artists. She remained in California until 2013 when she returned to Beirut to say goodbye to her dying husband. Caland’s works can be found in collections around to world including the LACMA, Los Angeles; the Armand Hammer Museum, USA; The British Museum, London, UK; the Tate, UK; the Metropolitan Art Museum New York, USA; the San Diego Museum of Art, USA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA; the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles, USA; the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France; the Fondation Nationale d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; the Barjeel Art foundation, Sharjah, UAE; the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon.