The majority of Huguette Caland’s artworks currently reside in the studio adjacent to her Venice Beach home in Los Angeles, which also serves as the epicenter for the management and preservation of her artistic legacy. We converse with Brigitte Caland, the artist’s progeny.
NT: Could you recount the history of the collection?
BC: Since the early 1990s, my mother wished for me to manage her artistic works, and this happened gradually. I had thus started to take care of it during her lifetime. Once we realized she was no longer capable of working in 2012, we organized ourselves. Therefore, we needed to conduct an inventory, and then archive the objects we had as well as those we did not possess but knew that our mother had donated, gifted, or possibly sold. She was extraordinarily generous, so on each occasion — be it a wedding, birthday, or visit — she would present her works. We had no documentation, but we were indeed fortunate, as people spontaneously came to us saying, “I have this work of Huguette; she gave it to me because I came to see her, because I got married, because it was my birthday, etc.” This helped us gain an understanding of the oeuvre’s composition.
NT: What does this collection consist of?
BC: Primarily, there are the dresses, which we regard as works of art; 160 in total. These dresses are divided into several categories: we have what we call “art dresses” that she created in Beirut between 1970 and 1975. These are dresses on which she sketched designs and then gave to an embroiderer in Basta, instructing him to execute specific embroidery stitches. The embroiderer did not always know the direction of the work until the final result. So it began with relatively simple dresses featuring circles, then she crafted Mirror, which revealed the contours of the female body. She made seven of these. Following Mirror, she created Tenderness, The Crowd, and then the era of Inaash, with a patchwork of 13 small squares. The stark difference between the work of the women of Inaash in the late ’60s and what they produce today is astonishing. The organization taught them to work more sophisticatedly, to be more refined in their craft, to transcend folklore, and create design-oriented pieces. This evolution is quite fascinating. So, there are these dresses she designed initially to wear, abayas she closed, and the smock dresses, which were her work aprons where she wiped brushes, painted, wrote down thoughts, reminders, appointments — anything that came to her mind. Then, there are the more sophisticated dresses, followed by the Cardin dresses, of which we recovered four that she had kept. Incomprehensibly, Cardin has no archives concerning these dresses. We conducted research for the Tate exhibition in St Ives, but it was impossible to trace them.
Besides the dresses, there is a range of paintings from Bribes de corps from the ’70s to the paintings she created in her later years on all kinds of dimensions, such as the enormous Visages sans bouches, which measures 10m by 2m, and those on tiny canvases. Then there are the drawings, all kinds of drawings she executed throughout her career, and the sculptures, 32 or 33, initially in terracotta, then four in bronze, and then those we made, at her request in 2014, for the Beirut exhibition. There are the Rossinantes, the series of incredibly delicate, breathtakingly ethereal drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Then the papier-mâché works. There are numerous series spread across decades. But also within these series, there are variations making them quite extensive to enumerate, such as Silent Letters, Christine, Homage to Pubic Hair, My Young Years, Ed, etc. All this forms the foundation of the collection. And all of this will be available online quite soon.
NT: Are you preparing a catalogue?
BC: Yes, it is a massive, simultaneously exciting, yet slow-moving task. We are working in a way that promotes and facilitates research for those who would be interested. As such, we are in the process of adding the maximum amount of detail. We have been working on it for five years, conducting extensive research, and we have catalogued more than 2700 pieces. In my opinion, we will be approaching three thousand pieces by the time it goes online. We are still entering data into the system. The history of each piece is included, whether it has been exhibited, whether it has been featured in a newspaper, or on the cover of a book, which has often been the case in recent years. It is a meticulous task we are still undertaking. If I am optimistic, I would say that by the end of the year, the bulk of the work will be done and it can be launched online. If we want to wait until there is a maximum amount of entries, it will take a few more months, but we are at that point in the inventory.
NT: Do you lend out a lot?
BC: Yes, regularly. The last loan was made for Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, who borrowed five works from the collection for Beirut and the Golden Sixties.
NT: In which major collections is Huguette Caland’s work located?
BC: In the Middle East, she is best represented in Sharjah, which holds a wide range of works from the earliest period, from 1968 up to two Rossinantes. Zaza and Philippe Jabre also possess some beautiful works, as does Abraham Karabajakian, and then there are many individuals who own my mother’s works. Here in Los Angeles, the Weisman Foundation has some beautiful pieces, the LACMA has a work, and Armand Hammer has a painting and 2 dresses with their mannequins, then there is the MoMA and the MET in New York, the Tate in London which has 13 works, a dress, 10 drawings, a dress with a mannequin, and a painting (a Bribes de corps), the British Museum has 2, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris has 3.
NT: What are the recurring themes in the collection?
BC: Lines from the beginning. That is to say, regardless of the period, the line is significant. Be it the line of the erotic drawing, or the one that strolls, or the one that allows a tightrope walker to walk on it in works like Granite or The Limousin or Silent Letters, the line is paramount. And then there are themes such as the body, letters, writing, the said and unsaid, faces and places, a recurrent theme (Faces and Places) that has served to title several series, including a humorous series of more than 10 sheepskins, and several exhibitions in Beirut in 1994 and 1997. There are also 2 works, a diptych, which she also named Faces and Places, so for her it was important. She always said that her work was made up of people she loved, saw, met, and lost.
NT: Do you have any favorites?
BC: Yes, many. I have a particular affection for the purity of Bribes de corps and the mystery of Silent Letters, not just the enigma of what these silent letters contain, but also the enigma of their genesis, the story behind them.
NT: What does the work of managing the collection involve?
BC: It involves first taking inventory, then addressing the issues each object presents, the condition it was found in, and its tracking. That is, when a piece is selected for an exhibition, ensuring it is in the best possible condition, that it is properly framed, presentable, restored. Usually, the works from the early years have undergone restoration. It’s a colossal task because there have been many exhibitions and thus, much coming and going. The works need to be dispatched and received. So it involves ensuring they are in good condition when they depart, but also when they return. This requires meticulous examination, down to the minutest detail, when they come back, taking the least possible risk while displaying and showcasing the works. Managing the collection also involves promoting the work, placing it in museums, foundations, collections, while protecting family interests, as well as helping curators prepare exhibitions, whether they be museum or gallery exhibitions.
NT: Who are the people looking after this collection besides you?
BC: Salima Babakhyi was my mother’s assistant from 2005 and she is still part of the team today, alongside Ric Flaata, Malado Baldwin, Ron Griffin, Karim Fazulzianov and Lana Maksoud (who acts as the liaison with Beirut where she is based). Ric is an archivist and knows the collection by heart, by number. He is invaluable. He has been with us for almost 10 years. Malado is an artist who has been with us for 9 years and who does “in-house” restoration, cleaning, and touch-ups. Her artist background also allows her to have a very important perspective on what can be done. So when there are sometimes conservation or artistic choices to be made, she is there. Ron is also an artist and he builds everything for us that pertains to protection. He designed the storage, he conceived all the protective boxes. Karim, the youngest, started less than a year ago. He is also an artist, a designer, very resourceful, he takes care of everything that involves photography, he also does many things and is always available. He has the energy of his 20s and he contributes greatly. Lastly, the chocolate table is an essential part of our operations.
NT: Any future projects?
BC: A major exhibition is scheduled to take place next year at the Reina Sophia with many works. It’s a massive retrospective for which Hannah Feldman is the curator. We also have publishing projects in English and French.
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