Huguette Caland
Self Portrait | 1973
Oil on canvas. 120 x 120 cm.

Defying traditional canons of beauty, Huguette Caland displays her body with humor and strength, perhaps in an alternative feminist perspective. Born into an established Lebanese family and the daughter of President Bechara el-Khoury, Huguette Caland’s desire to be a painter was against the societal norms of the time. In the 1960s and 1970s, this fiercely passionate woman expressed a sense of freedom that was unseen even in the cosmopolitan circles of Beirut. Caland’s art relates to her life, her loves and even her intimate moments.

Reference HC-P-1973-A

Biography of the artist

Born in Beirut, Lebanon. 1931
Died in Beirut, Lebanon. 2019



Caland began painting with the Italian modernist Fernando Manetti in 1947 and later studied fine art at the American University of Beirut under mentors John Carswell and Arthur Frick. In 1970, Caland held her first solo exhibition at Dar El Fan, Beirut, before moving to Paris where she collaborated with poets, artists, and designers such as Adonis, George Apostu, and Pierre Cardin. In 1987, after spending a few months in New York, she moved to Los Angeles where she established her studio. Caland has exhibited extensively, including at Prospect.3 New Orleans (2014); Lombard Freid Gallery, New York (2014); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2013); Beirut Exhibition Center (2012); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (2012); Peter Findlay Gallery, New York (2011); National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC (2010); and LA Contemporary, Los Angeles (2009). Caland’s work is held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; British Museum, London; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Fondation National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; San Diego Museum of Art; Palm Springs Art Museum, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles. Caland’s paintings have been acquired by the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, LACMA, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain both in Paris, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Palm Springs Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, Hammer Museum, as well as private collectors in the USA, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Monaco, Great Britain, Lebanon, the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc.