Huguette Caland

With a storied pedigree as the daughter of the first president of postcolonial Lebanon, Huguette Caland has been forging a bold artistic career since the early 1960s. Along with Shafic Abboud and Etel Adnan, she is part of a generation of artists who have shaped the artistic identity of her country. “I’m a line person,” she has aptly declared, referring to her work’s delicate lines that are inspired by the Byzantine mosaics and handwoven rugs that blanketed the walls of her native Beirut and childhood home. At the beginning of her career, she painted and sculpted erotic, semi-abstract bodyscapes, exploring amorousness and anatomy with a humorous, light touch. By 1970, she had moved to Paris, where she designed a line of haute couture caftans for Pierre Cardin and started to create the minutely patterned, textile-like compositions. In 1987, she settled in Venice, California. In 2013, she moved back to Beirut until her passing.
 
Photo: Sandy Lajer