NOW AND TEN

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HUGUETTE CALAND
(LEBANESE, B. 1931)
Untitled (from the Bribes de Corps series)
oil on canvas
28¡ x 28¡in. (72 x 72cm.)
Painted circa 1965
US$50,000-70,000
AED190,000-250,000
PROVENANCE:
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner.
‘She is, in the broadest meaning of the word, a humanist; sensual
and spiritual, erotic and sentimental, humourous and playful,
fearful and daring, compassionate and detached, pragmatic
and impulsive. All these qualities are found in her art.’
(The artist, quoted in “Pure Visual Delight in Pencil and Ink: Never Tormented always amusing”,
in Huguette Caland, exh. cat., Beirut Exhibition Center 2014, p. 23).
Charming the art world with her distinctive avantgarde
style and outspoken character, Huguette
Caland is arguably the most infuential Lebanese
Contemporary feminist artist of her time.
Through her elaborate yet humble works, fantasy
and reality meet together to create a unique
mixture of rigour and freedom, seriousness and
lightheartedness that is distinctive in style. Born
in 1931 in Beirut as the only daughter of the frst
President of the Republic of Lebanon Bechara
El Khoury, Caland pursued art and literature as
a means of expression. Having felt dismissed by
many for being within such a political environment
as the President’s daughter, whilst also battling
with her ever increasing weight, Caland used her
art as a way of cementing her presence within the
patriarchal society that dominated Lebanon in the
1960s and 1970s. During this time Beirut was an
intellectual and artistic hub, relatively peaceful
with a sense of democracy and freedom of
expression - that instigated an open atmosphere
of exchange that lead to the formation of many
Arab nationalist ideals. It served to be the perfect
breeding ground for Caland’s distinctive world
flled with a childlike awe reminiscent of the
scents and textures of Beirut, love, family, war,
exile and freedom.
She began painting at the age of 16 under the
private tutelage of Fernando Manetti, an Italian
artist who resided in Lebanon and then pursued
her studies at the American University of Beirut
with the likes of Aref El Rayess, Helen Khal,
Shafc Abboud, Janine Rubeiz and many others.
Developing her own fercely individual aesthetic
approach, Caland began the frst in what was to
be three distinct periods throughout her artistic
career. Known as the Bribes de Corps (translated
as Body Fragments), they are inspired by Caland’s
sensitivity to her own body - she afectionately
refers to her large body size as excess baggage
- and femininity.
Christie’s is honoured to present a seminal
example from this series this season, exploring
her favourite subject of human anatomy.
Extravagant and ludic on the one hand, sensual
and tender on the other, it depicts through a
suggestion of line and vivid expanses of colour,
a classical rending of areas of the human body,
evocating an intimate feminine exploration of life
and love that is strangely soothing.
Demystifying the notion of the body and sexuality
becoming decorative in nature this freedom of
expression was rare in the Middle East in the
1960s and 1970s. Despite her father’s position,
Caland capitalised on her exposure to a period
of cultural vitality in Lebanon. Her mastery
was to evoke the complex idea of womanhood
during these decades and its symbols by creating
liberating pictures. She would represent the body
in subtle semi-abstracted imagery where female
forms became soft landscapes seducing the
viewer with modernist renderings of tangled
bodies as supple landscapes without beginning or
end, her body parts and curves of fesh becoming
the mountains and valleys. Caland sought
inspiration from the western female artists of this
time such as Georgia O’Keefe and Niki de Saint
Phalle, who also explored natural forms, intimacy
and bright colour palettes, celebrating femininity
in its exultancy but with none of the tortured
darkness despite her complicated childhood. Her
work, of which the present work is an outstanding
example, holds a lightness and everlasting
childlike awe, therein lies the power of Caland’s
oeuvre. In each of her compositions there is a
deep-rooted sense of resilience, freedom and lust
for life that radiates with charm, luminosity and
rich sophistication.
Although Caland has become more well-known
for her Tapestries, it is her older work, of which
the present work is a strong example that has
captured the attention of many and has cemented
her already established title as a major fgure in
the Contemporary Middle Eastern art scene. A
work from this period has recently been acquired
by LACMA in Los Angeles.
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