Art Dubai: Shifting perspectives on Modernism and the body

The late Huguette Caland is arguably one of the most fascinating feminist voices of her time, although her work was only studied very late in her life. Known for her other passion for life, her independence and sense of mischief, Caland led an unconventional life which was totally her own. She was a fixture of the Lebanese modernist movement and cultural scene in the 60s and 70s, which she abandoned, leaving her husband, lover and children behind to pursue her artistic and personal freedom in Paris. It was there that Caland achieved artistic recognition with her exuberant and erotically charged paintings that challenge traditional conventions of beauty and desire. Her use of lines always conveyed more than they represented the delicate trace of contours strategically placed charged lines which reveal just the hint of body parts, swelling forms and shapes, meeting one another. At the age of 34, she stopped wearing Western clothing in favor of Kaftans, or Abayas, which she first bought and then designed and painted herself as someone who had struggled with her larger body size or 'excess baggage' as she fondly called it. The Abaya became a way to liberate her body, an important part of her practice. Her risque designs would later catch the eye of the fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who invited her to design a line of 100 haute-couture kaftans, the 'Nour collection'.