(^74) Cornwall Life: August 2019
is somewhat abstract but none the less
powerful and visceral for it. This work is
Caland’s Guernica. Faces melt in sorrow,
but there is still an eroticism and some joy.
Caland cannot extricate herself entirely
from her natural proclivity towards
positivism. The world will not defeat her
indefatigable spirit: her art will continue to
bewitch us. No wonder artists live so long.
‘Her mature and confident
mark making with oils is like
a master draughtsperson
with a Sharpie in hand’
ART
colourful, figurative and abstract painting;
the composition both subtle and striking.
This is also as sensual and as sexy as
painting gets. For this is not an exhibition
for the inhibited. Caland has no fear of
her sexuality and her desire, it is writ
large over these works. Eroticism is a key
element in her work and I assume her life.
These are triumphant artworks where a
female artist is justly unashamed of her
body and its wants. There is no wearisome
and clichéd male gaze here.
The comic and the surreal are again
reflected in the largest work on display
Visages Sans Bouches, Bouches Sans Visages
(Faces Without Mouths, Mouths Without
Faces) the acrylic colours pulse with a
vibrancy and a wicked sense of fun: Luis
Buñuel painted by Rose Wylie. Why is it
that female artists are so less po-faced than
their male counterparts? Do women have
an innate sense of the absurd, because
they deal with arbitrary and ridiculous
discrimination every day? Perhaps they
have learned to adapt and lampoon a world
that egregiously holds their talents in less
regard than that of men. Judging from
her art I would conjecture that Huguette
Caland has lived an exuberantly anarchic
and joyfully uninhibited life.
There is a caveat to this though, in the
form of the most moving of the works
on display here Uncivil War (1981, oil on
linen). This is in reference to the civil war
in Lebanon which ran from 1975 until 1990
and was such a fixture on the television
news when I was growing up. This painting
is, by necessity, a far darker and more
melancholic work than the others. At its
heart is a figure with amputated leg. It
HUGUETTE
CALAND
24 May – 1 September 2019
Tate St Ives
Porthmeor Beach
TR26 1TG
Open Monday to Sunday
10am–5.20pm
tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives
The exhibition invites reflection and embraces humour in much of its subject matter
Family (1978)
barry
(Barry)
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