Known simply as Baya, Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine was born Fatima Haddad in 1931. The daughter of a poor Kabyle family in Bordj El Kiffan, she lost both her parents at the age of five and was...
BAYA MAHIEDDINE, Algeria (1931 - 1998)
Bio
Written by L'OR IMAN PUYMARTIN
Known simply as Baya, Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine was born Fatima Haddad in 1931. The daughter of a poor Kabyle family in Bordj El Kiffan, she lost both her parents at the age of five and was raised by her grandmother until the age of eleven. Unable to attend school, eleven-year-old Baya began working as a live-in servant for Marguerite Caminat, a Frenchwoman whose personal art collection included works by such notable modernists as Braque and Matisse. Baya would later refer to Caminat as her adoptive mother, for she first saw the artistic potential in her and encouraged her to develop her skills. Marguerite Caminat first noticed Baya’s talent when the artist was a young child, remarking on the enthusiasm with which she deftly modeled figures out of clay.
Baya never received a formal education, but instead created work inspired by her personal experiences, utilizing colors and motifs drawn from Kabyle arts to give form to her imagination. In her works, the recurring topics of gardens, ceramics, and traditional textiles with intricate designs originated from her homeland’s visual culture. At merely sixteen years old, the artist caught the attention of French art dealer Aimé Maeght, at his friend’s atelier in Alger, the sculptor Jean Peyrissac. Maeght invited Baya to show her work in his gallery in Paris. The same gallery exhibited some of France’s most renowned painters at the time, including Braque and Matisse, and through her connections to Maeght Baya came into contact with the élites of the French art world. She became somewhat of an overnight sensation, with artists and critics alike eager to exoticize her flamboyant, vibrant paintings as “primitive” or “childlike.” The French writer and poet André Breton authors a preface for the catalog of her first exhibition at La Galerie Maeght, in 1947.
Baya remains for a few years in France, where she produces her ceramic works at the Atelier Madura in Vallauris. There she rubs shoulders with Picasso and Braque and, It is said that she became a muse to Picasso, infamous for his appropriation of non-Western visual forms and that the young artist may have informed his work on the series Women of Algiers (1954-1955).
The artist’s rise to prominence may have begun in France, but throughout her career, Baya remained based in Algeria. While many Western critics and artists called Baya a surrealist painter due to the dream-like nature of her work, she refused to be defined by occidental terminology, considering these classifications were a western culture’s hegemonic way of imposing their definitions onto non-western culture. The artist’s creations were rendered from deep and personal experiences that were primarily rooted in her childhood and home, where she remained even in times of turmoil. During the Algerian Revolution (1954-1962), Baya and her husband, composer Mahfoudh Mahieddine, were staunch proponents of Algerian independence, and the artist stopped painting for years to devote more time to the cause. During the Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, when the country was particularly unsafe for artists and intellectuals, Baya refused an invitation to move to France, preferring to remain in the home to which she had devoted so much of her life.
Baya’s art distinguishes itself in its rich, playful use of color and pattern, as well as its imaginative renderings of human figures, animals, and floral motifs. Her extravagant paintings of animals intertwined with instruments and fruit draw equally from her imagination, cultural surroundings, and daily life. For example, the artist would often incorporate her composer-husband’s instruments into her pieces, juxtaposed with patterns drawn from traditional murals and motifs of ceramic objects common to the region. Furthermore, at a time when many European artists continued to paint women in exoticized and sexualized ways, Baya populated her canvases with expressive, joyfully rendered women that complicated stereotypes about North African conservativism as well as norms of female representation.
Baya died of an illness in Algeria in 1998, having left a substantial mark on Algerian, Middle Eastern, and European art worlds alike. Considered a cultural icon in her native Algeria, she and her work appeared on a series of Algerian postal stamps in the early 2000s.
Sources
"Baya Mehieddine: A Profile from the Archives." Jadaliyya. July 6, 2014. Accessed November 15, 2017. http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18413/baya-mahieddine_a-profile-from-the-archives.
Chubb, Emma. "Baya Mahieddine." Mathaf Encyclopedia. Accessed November 15, 2017. http://www.encyclopedia.mathaf.org.qa/en/bios/Pages/Baya-Mahieddine-.aspx.
Kalsi, Jyoti. "Shining a spotlight on North African art." Gulf News. August 4, 2016. Accessed November 15, 2017. http://gulfnews.com/culture/arts/shining-a-spotlight-on-north-african-art-1.1873799.
Samuels, A. J. "Baya Mahieddine: The Young Artist Who Inspired Picasso." The Culture Trip. April 12, 2017. Accessed November 15, 2017. https://theculturetrip.com/africa/algeria/articles/baya-mahieddine-the-young-artist-who-inspired-picasso/.
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CV
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2021
Lasting Impressions: Baya Mahieddine Exhibition, Sharjah Art museum, UAE
2019
Baya Mahieddine, Elmarsa Gallery, Alserkal avenue, Dubai, UAE
2018
Baya, Woman of Algiers, Grey Art Gallery, New York City
2013
Baya : créatrice chez les surréalistes, organized by Maeght Foundation at Le Musée Magnelli - Musée de la Céramique, Vallauris, France
2000
Baya, ADEIAO, Centre d'Etudes Africaines (EHESS-CNRS), Maison des Sciences de l'homme, Paris
1982
Baya, L'Orient des Provençaux, Musée Cantini, Marseille, France
1963
The National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers, Algeria
1947
Derrière le Miroir, Maeght Gallery, Paris, France
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
EN ATTENDANT OMAR GATLATO Regard sur l'art en Algérie et dans sa diaspora, Triangle France - Astérides, Tour Panorama, Marseille, France
2020
Artistes De La Fraternité Algérienne 1963-2020, Centre culturel Algérien, Paris, France
2018
150 Years of Art at the Reattu Museum!,Reattu Museum, Arles Fine Arts Museum, Arles, France
Night Was Paper And We Were Ink, Barjeel Art Foundation Gallery, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE
Revolution Generations, Mathaf: Arab Museum Of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
2017
100 Masterpieces of Modern and Contemporary Art: The Barjeel Collection, Museé de l’Institut du monde arabe, Paris, France
Des affinités éléctives II, MUba Eugène Leroy, Tourcoing, France
Paysages et Portraits dans la collection du Musée, Musée Public National d’Art Moderne et Contemporain d’Alger, Algiers, Algeria
Night Was Paper And We Were Ink, Barjeel Art Foundation Gallery, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE
2016
The Short Century, Barjeel art Foundation at Sharjah Museum, UAE
Looking at the World Around You. Contemporary Works from Qatar Museums, Fundacion Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain
Yesterday is tomorrow's memory: a group show of work from North Africa, Elmarsa Gallery, Al Serkal avenue, Dubai, UAE
2014
La Maison de verre, André Breton initiateur découvreur, Musée de Cahors Henri- Martin, Cahors, France
Summary, Part 1, Mathaf Collection, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Sky Over The East, Barjeel art Foundation at the Emirates Palace, UAE
Albert CAMUS et ses amis peintres, organized by the association Coup De Soleil, Centre Berthelot, Lyon, France
2013
Vallauris et la Fondation Maeght : une histoire d’amitié, Musée Magnelli (Musée de la Céramique), Vallauris, France
Multiples Modernities, 1905-1970, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Black and Blue: A Mediterranean Dream, MuCEM, Marseille, France
Intervening Space: From the Intimate to the World, The Mosaic Rooms, London, UK
Mathaf: The Paintings, Sculptures And Projects Garden, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
2012
50 Années dʼArt Algérien, Musée national des Beaux-Arts, Dar Essalam, El Hamma, Algeria
2010
Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World,exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
2009
Flower Power, Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale, Villa Giulia, Verbania, Italy
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World,exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, The Council on Middle East Studies (CMES), Yale, Institute of Sacred music, New Haven; Kennedy Center, Washington DC, USA
2008
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World,exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg; Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock (Arkansas), USA; Art Gallery Eastbank Centre, Shepparton, Australia
2007
Alger Capitale de la Culture Arabe, The National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers, Algeria
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World, exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, The Interfaith Centre, Melbourne, Australia
2006
Centenaire Aimé Maeght: Dialogue avec le siècle,Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World, exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, Cultural Centre of Ourense, Ourense - Spain
2005
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World, exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, Museo del Risorgimento Complesso del Vittoriano in Rome, Italy; Cultural Centre" Circulo Del Arte" in Barcelona – Spain
2004
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World,exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, Edificio Varadero in Almeria, Spain; Museo di Storia Contemporanea in Milan, Italy; Placio Reale in Napoly- Italy; S. Francesco Della Scarpa in Lecce- Italy; Abbaye de Neumer Luxembourg, Centre Culturel de Rencontre in Luxembourg
2003
The Twentieth Century in Algerian Art, Château Borély, Marseille and l’Orangerie du Sénat, Paris, France
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World, exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece; UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France; Fine Arts Museum in Valencia, Spain; The Foundation of the Three Cultures Expo in Seville, Spain
2002
Le pluriel des singuliers, Galerie d’art du Conseil général des Bouches-du-Rhône, Aix-en-Provence, France
Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World,exhibition organized by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Jordan and the Pan-Mediterranean Women Artists Network of Greece, Rhodes- Greece
2001
L’Art Naïf Africain, Third International Biennale of Laval, Chapelle Saint-Julien, Laval, France
1998
Aux frontières de l’art brut, Halle Sainte Pierre, Paris, France
1995
Les effets du voyage: 25 artistes Algériens, Palais des congrès et de la culture, Le Mans, France
1994
Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., USA
1991
André Breton: La beauté convulsive, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
André Breton: La beauté convulsive, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
Galerie Maitre Albert, Paris, France
1990
Trois femmes peintres : Baya, Chaibia, Fahrelnissa, Institut Du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Wafabank, Casablanca, Morocco
1989
Contemporary Art from the Islamic World, Barbican Concourse Gallery, London, UK
Galerie Ipso, Brussels, Belgium
1988
Algérie, Expressions Multiples, Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, Musée de la Vieille Charité, Marseille, France
Bonjour Picasso, Musée Pablo Picasso, Antibes, France
1987
Algérie, Expressions Multiples, Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie, Paris, France
Galerie Muhammad Issiakhem, Algiers, Algeria
1984
Communal Cultural Centre, Aubagne, France
1983
Galerie de l’union nationale des arts plastiques, , Algiers, Algeria
1978
Galerie Mohamed Racim, Algiers, Algeria
1974
Galerie de l’union nationale des arts plastiques, Algiers, Algeria
Galerie des 4 Colonnes, Algiers, Algeria
Galerie Mohamed Racim, Algiers, Algeria
1971
Galerie de l’union nationale des arts plastiques, Algiers, Algeria
1969
Galerie de l’union nationale des arts plastiques, Algiers, Algeria
1967
Galerie de l’union nationale des arts plastiques, Algiers, Algeria
1964
Exposition des peintres Algériens, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France
Galerie 54, Algiers, Algeria
1963
Ibn Khaldoun Hall, Algiers, Algeria
1962
Algerian Painters, Musée des beaux-arts, Algiers, Algeria
1950
Alhambra Hall, Maison de l’artisanat, Algiers, Algeria
Awards and Honors
2018
12 December Google Doodle celebrates Late Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine in the memory of her 87thbirthday.
2008
The Algerian post issued two stamps representing a portrait and a painting of Baya.
Collections
The National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers, Algeria
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Musée des Arts décoratifs de Paris, France
Fonds national d'art contemporain de Paris (FRAC), France
Reattu Museum, Arles Fine Arts Museum, Arles, France
Musée Cantini, Marseille, France
Collection d'art brut de Lausanne, Switzerland
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
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Documents
The Arabic Connection in Articulating North African Modernity in Art
Nada M. Shabout
South Atlantic Quarterly 109:3, English, 2010
Essay
La construction des artistes femmes du Moyen-Orient dans les expocollections du Centre Pompidou : les cas de elles@centrepompidou et Modernités plurielles de 1905 à 1970.
Claire Moineau
UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL FACULTÉ DES ÉTUDES SUPÉRIEURES, French, 2018
Thesis
Baya: An Algerian Original
Charles Michael Brush
Pennsylvania State University, English, 2014
Essay within AFR 110: Intro to Contemporary Africa
Beyond the Odalisque
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi
Ibraaz, English, 2014
Essay
Algerian Painters and Pioneers of Modernism
Mary Vogl
Academia.edu, English
Essay
The Magic of Signs and Patterns in North African Art
Salwa Mikdadi
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, English, 2004
Essayrn
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Press
Ahram Online - Google Doodle celebrates Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine
Ahram online, 2018
Baya Mahieddine: An Arab Woman Artist
Sana Makhoul
Contemporary Algeria, 2008
أربعون الرسامة الجزائرية باية محي الدين
Al Hayat, Arabic
أدهشت بيكاسو، كرمها كاسترو والشاذلي بن جديد.. وعائلتها تكشف: ميتران عرض على باية الجنسية مقابل التخلي عن جزائريتها
Djazairess.com, Arabic, 2010
Baya Mahieddine | The Young Artist Who Inspired Picasso
A. J. Samuels
The Culture Trip, English, 2017
Baya Mahieddine: A Profile from the Archives
Jadaliya profiles, 2014
باية محي الدين فنانة الفطرة والسذاجة التي أسرت باريس
Hadeer Hassan
E7ki, Arabic, 2019
باية محيي الدين صديقة بيكاسو التي هزمت السرياليين
Farouk Yousef
Al Arab, Arabic, 2017
Meet Bazaar Art Cover Star: The Iconic Baya Mahieddine
SELOUA LUSTE BOULBINA
Bazaar Art, English, 2019
The Algerian Teenager Who Influenced Picasso and Matisse
Jane Drinkard
The Cut, English, 2018
BREAKING THE VEILS: WOMEN ARTISTS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Anna Linda Foundation, English
Lifting the veils from our own eyes
Marianna Combs
MPR News, English, 2010
Striking women's art from the Islamic world
Mary Abbe
Star Tribune, 2010
Breaking the Veils Works by more than 50 female artists from 22 Islamic countries, touring since September 2002
Nafas, English, 2003
BREAKING THE VEILS: WOMEN ARTISTS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Interfaith center, 2008
ALGER: EXPOSITION « 50 ANS D’ART ALGÉRIEN » AU MUSÉE NATIONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS
REDA TIGHILT
Viny culture, 2012
Mathaf: The Paintings, Sculptures and Projects Garden Exhibition
Art Kuwait, English, 2013
Art Dubai Modern: Historical Fragments
Hrag Vartanian
Hyperallergic, English
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