Huguette calander biography

The Reina Sofía Museum is hosting the first major European retrospective of the Lebanese-born artist from 19 February to 25 August. Made up of around 200 works, the exhibition includes drawings, paintings, sculptures, textiles and collages from the places where she lived and developed her extensive career, such as the Middle East, Europe and the United States.

Caland (Beirut, 1931–2019) challenged the aesthetic, sexual and social conventions of her time in both her life and her work.  Her work reveals her exploration of the body, gender, love, belonging, the human condition and ageing.  Along with these concepts, an artist who is deeply connected to community, communication and the idea of home is also revealed, in contrast with the apparent perception of her cosmopolitan rootlessness following her departure from her native city to emigrate to Paris and her subsequent life in Venice Beach (Los Angeles) until her return to Beirut.

The atmosphere in which she lived and the relationships she established in her own country, the Old Continent and the United States provid

ICA Miami is proud to present “Huguette Caland: Outside the Line,” the first solo exhibition of the works of Lebanese artist Huguette Caland in an American museum. A provocative figure in abstract art, Caland (1931–2019) has only recently been recognized for her figurative and abstract paintings that render the body in subtle lines and bursts of color that are simultaneously intimate, erotic, and bold. This exhibition brings together paintings from the artist’s series “Bribes de corps” (Body Parts, 1973–76) and associated works, reflecting her preoccupation with the body and formal experimentation in drawing and abstract painting. Caland often used her own body as a point of departure; these works focus on the body as craft and caricature, expressing its subtle forms through humor, sexual expression, and formal invention.

Born in Beirut to the first president of an independent Lebanon, Caland grew up in a cosmopolitan and political environment. Until the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, Beirut’s art scene was one of great freedom and experimentation. An active participant in this mili

Faces and Places is Huguette Caland’s largest solo museum exhibition in the world, featuring six decades of her paintings, drawings, caftans, smocks and sculptures, including a selection of never before exhibited works. The exhibition is organised around three different geographical locations that define Caland’s personal and professional journey: Beirut, Paris and California.

Born in Beirut in 1931, Caland was the daughter of the first president of the independent Lebanese Republic. She completed her formal education at the American University of Beirut, where she developed an intimate relationship with line drawing. One of her professors encouraged her to start drawing at the top of the page, not letting go until completion. She mastered this technique, which appears throughout her work as her practice evolves from figuration to abstraction.

As a young woman in Beirut, the concept of independence was critical for Caland; ‘Lebanon was fighting for its independence and I was fighting for my mind’, she said. She expressed this initially through her appearance. At the age of 34,

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