To understand Huguette Caland’s (1931-2019) work is to delve into the themes of identity, feminism, and the body, intertwined with the cultural richness of her Eastern heritage and the boldness of Western modernism. Transcending her political and personal background, Caland’s interdisciplinary artistry is one of innovation, where abstraction and figuration dance together, merging fluidity with form to celebrate sensuality, desire, and intimate self-expression.

Caland’s early work, shaped by the figurative traditions of the 1950s and 1960s in Lebanon, studied the human form, especially the female body. These early pieces, rich in emotion and sensuality, gave way to a more abstract language in the 1970s, after she moved to Paris and then Los Angeles in the late 1980s. From then on, her art embraced organic, curvilinear forms that evoked the body, represented either more or less explicitly, such as in Parenthèse I [Parenthesis I] (1971) and Bribes de corpes [Fragments of Bodies] (1973).

In her work, abstraction is seen as a vessel for the physical, capturing its essence without ever succumbing to the literal. Central to Caland’s vision was her exploration of the feminine. Yet, her works never simply represented women; they embodied a liberated, unapologetic sense of womanhood. Through sweeping lines and vibrant colors, Caland painted not just the body but the very essence of desire, vulnerability, and strength. In Homage to Pubic Hair (1992), Caland uses a pencil line to contour the female form, particularly the labia, with playful pubic twirls washed in warm colors.

She once said, “The line is beautiful… I’m a line person.”¹ Throughout her career, the line has woven its way through every corner of Caland’s practice, meandering across fragile drawings and flowing over paintings on linen, canvas, and panel – an art technique of an uninterrupted journey, where the pencil moves from the top of the page to its very end, leaving a trace of continuity in its wake. Her use of abstraction was not just an artistic choice, but a way of distilling the essence of human experience, capturing both her subjects’ physicality and emotional depth.

The 36th Bienal de São Paulo brings together a selection of Huguette Caland’s legacy that beckons viewers to connect on an emotional and imaginative level with the lines and shapes she has conjured. This delicate balance between suggestion and form has imbued her art with a timeless resonance. Each work traces the whispers of the most intimate moments viewers can relate to.