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Lot Essay
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Huguette Caland celebrates her 81st birthday this year. She continues to produce magnificent and breathtaking detailed works that she fills with her fine brushstrokes, inks and pens. Huguette is the only daughter of the first President of the Republic of Lebanon, Sheikh Bechara El Khoury, also known as the 'Father of Independence'. She began painting at the age of 16 under the private instruction of the Italian artist Fernando Manetti. She was also greatly encouraged by her uncle Fouad El-Khoury.
Caland studied at the American University of Beirut from 1964 to 1968 and moved to Paris in 1970, where she lived for seventeen years. She later spent some time working and living in New York. Caland briefly returned to Paris where she worked with Romanian sculptor George Apostu. They worked on a series and range of mediums together such as stone, wood and terracotta. She is now living and working in Venice, California where she continues to pursue her dream as an artist. Lebanon, her home country and the colours of the Mediterranean continue to shine through her present works.
In her paintings, Caland depicts a charming fantasy scenery. Her work is far from being archaic despite its simplicity in its overall message and technique. The natural element in her work is inspired directly from her Lebanese roots. The scene that she depicts alludes to a lost childhood set against an almost forgotten nature and every stroke highlights a vital imagination in a beautiful form of simplicity.
Huguette Caland's work is defined by an exhilarating use of bright colours that refresh the eye, almost creating a child-like presence on a larger scale of depth. Her paintings illustrate simple recognisable scenes of the everyday life, while still retrieving the artist's personal sense. Through her works, she shows the way she thinks the world should be rather than how the world is. Her optimistic perspective dominates the surface of the canvas, taking the viewer on an endless journey as there is never an end or a beginning to her works.
Caland studied at the American University of Beirut from 1964 to 1968 and moved to Paris in 1970, where she lived for seventeen years. She later spent some time working and living in New York. Caland briefly returned to Paris where she worked with Romanian sculptor George Apostu. They worked on a series and range of mediums together such as stone, wood and terracotta. She is now living and working in Venice, California where she continues to pursue her dream as an artist. Lebanon, her home country and the colours of the Mediterranean continue to shine through her present works.
In her paintings, Caland depicts a charming fantasy scenery. Her work is far from being archaic despite its simplicity in its overall message and technique. The natural element in her work is inspired directly from her Lebanese roots. The scene that she depicts alludes to a lost childhood set against an almost forgotten nature and every stroke highlights a vital imagination in a beautiful form of simplicity.
Huguette Caland's work is defined by an exhilarating use of bright colours that refresh the eye, almost creating a child-like presence on a larger scale of depth. Her paintings illustrate simple recognisable scenes of the everyday life, while still retrieving the artist's personal sense. Through her works, she shows the way she thinks the world should be rather than how the world is. Her optimistic perspective dominates the surface of the canvas, taking the viewer on an endless journey as there is never an end or a beginning to her works.