Born in Beirut in 1931, Huguette Caland was the daughter of Lebanon’s first president. She married a French diplomat, moved to Paris in 1970, studied drawing with Fernand Léger, and in 1987 settled in Venice, California. In the decades that followed she produced paintings, drawings, sculptures, and textiles that explored the body, sexuality, aging, and desire, often with a playful sense of humor. Her spare, sensual lines were a signature, though wider recognition came late, following her inclusion in the Hammer Museum’s 2016 biennial. The Hammer now presents a major retrospective of her work, with some 150 pieces and archival material organized in collaboration with Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía and Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen. —Elena Clavarino