Huguette Caland was born in Beirut in 1931, 12 years before Lebanon achieved independence, in 1943. With freedom, Beirut flourished and tourists flocked to the newly nicknamed “Paris of the Middle East.” Women wore colorful caftans, artists experimented, the economy thrived. Caland was a part of this art scene, winning immediate attention for large paintings that rendered the body in subtly erotic forms. Then came civil war, in 1975, and everything changed. Caland had already moved to Paris, where she created the “Body Parts” series that would lead her into Color Field painting and Abstract Expressionism. In Caland’s her first solo show in an American museum, this landmark series is the focus. —Elena Clavarino