Huguette Caland: Outside the Lines

L’Or Puymartin • 27m

null Directed by L’Or Puymartin • 2019 • Lebanon This riveting documentary offers a window onto the life and work of the iconic artist, Huguette Caland. Earlier in her life, Caland lived in Lebanon where she married and raised three children, while studying Fine Arts at the American University in Beirut. With the passing of her father when she was 33 years old, Caland had an epiphany, leaving everything behind and moving to Paris to pursue her career as an artist. With a bold and experimental spirit, she pushed the formal boundaries of art to reflect a feminist impulse. A prodigious artist, she became recognized for drawings, paintings, and sculptures that embody a joyful, exuberant, and erotic sensibility. In 1970, Caland bridged the boundaries between fashion and art by designing a line of kaftans for the renowned couturier Pierre Cardin. She moved to Los Angeles in 1987, where she built her dream artist studio. Abiding by Middle Eastern traditions of hospitality, her home was always open to visitors from all over the world. Her art-filled home became a salon for LA’s creative community. Caland remained in California until 2013, when she returned to Beirut to bid farewell to her dying husband.