The retrospective exhibition of Lebanese artist Huguette Caland (1931-2019) has arrived at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía on Tuesday fragmented due to Israel’s bombings in Lebanon, which put at risk the transportation of 33 works exhibited in collections and museums in Beirut.
«We could not bring these works because at the time they needed to be transported, the ceasefire was not yet signed, so there were not the necessary security conditions to bring them. We made a very wise and sensible decision. These were works that were in private collections, foundations, museums. Now that we seem to be close to a kind of peace, we hope that these works can be in the exhibition in Hamburg (Germany) this fall,» explained the curator of the exhibition, contemporary art professor specializing in the Middle East and North Africa, Hannah Feldman.
However, the exhibition ‘Huguette Caland: A Life in Few Lines’ – which can be visited at the Madrid art gallery from February 19 to August -, has not been «worse» for these absences and there has been no «aesthetic loss», although they were works that allowed to study the role of patronage in the artist’s native country, Feldman added.
«There were many people in Lebanon who bought her work and supported her in her life as an artist there, and that is what we wanted to tell with these works. And also to explain and point out that Lebanon is a country dedicated to its culture and its art, not just a country victim of conflicts over the years,» the curator pointed out.
Comprising approximately 300 works by Caland, including drawings, paintings, textiles, and collages in large and small formats, from Europe and the United States, the Reina Sofía will host this exhibition, which will later move to Germany, aiming to show the artist’s own idea that art and politics «are inseparable», giving visibility to a «rebellious» woman who has been «delayed» in being recognized.
«It is relevant that we inaugurate an exhibition of one of the fundamental artists in the history of art in Lebanon, in the middle of a war, exhibitions like this are key to remembering the history of contemporary art in a more complex way than we are used to,» said the director of the Reina Sofía, Manuel Segade.
Likewise, the director of the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Dirk Luckow, has described Caland as an artist whose work reflects her «political awareness» but without neglecting the joy of living. Meanwhile, Feldman has criticized the words of the president of her country, Donald Trump, who believes that he has advocated for Israel to carry out an «ethnic cleansing» in Palestine.
«While we are here, Israel still occupies parts of Lebanon and invades its airspace, despite the ceasefire. And the president of my own country, not my president, but nevertheless, the president of my country, has proposed the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This exhibition has to be seen in this context, although it was not planned this way,» she pointed out.
Both her country and Palestine were important in Caland’s life and work, at «all levels». In 1969, she co-founded Inaash, an NGO that helps Palestinian women in Lebanese refugee camps make use of traditional Palestinian embroidery.
## WORKS THAT REFLECT THE FEMINISM AND CONCERNS OF CALAND
‘Huguette Caland: A Life in Few Lines’ – named after a canvas she dedicated to her husband that could not be part of the exhibition because it is in Lebanon – is organized in 12 rooms chronologically reflecting the feminist concerns or desires of the artist such as aging in women or migrations through colorful canvases and striking shapes and collages with love letters.
Additionally, Feldman explained that although the work of the Lebanese artist has often been associated with eroticism due to her representations of the body – her own and others – the artist approached this from the search for «her own autonomy».
«There are works that range from the earliest to her latest works in California. Caland is known for works that focus on her own body and the erotic aspect of this approach has been emphasized. However, her approach was about a search for her own autonomy and her place in space, and not just an erotic approach to her own body. The exhibition focuses on aspects such as language, communication, how to reach identity through others, migration, conventional sexual customs – which she treated with humor – or her concern for people whose gender or nationality make them live in a vulnerable way,» Feldman concluded.
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