Huguette Caland: A Life in a Few Lines

The most comprehensive survey of the overlooked Lebanese artist's sinuous, erotic oeuvre returns to print

Published with Hammer Museum/Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofìa.

In a career spanning almost five decades, the Lebanese artist Huguette Caland (1931-2019) defied all societal and aesthetic expectations of her time. Her multifaceted oeuvre is informed by her life spent across different cultures: from Beirut to Paris to Los Angeles and back. In paintings, drawings, sculptures and fabric works, she challenges traditional representations of sexuality, bodies and desire. Straddling figuration and abstraction-sometimes with explicitly erotic motifs-the artist developed her characteristic alphabet of curves, slits, bulges and dimples, with which she was well ahead of her time. Originally published in 2025, A Life in a Few Lines surveys Caland's corpus, presenting more than 200 works, retracing biographical lines and painting a picture of her historical context.