Baya Mahieddine

Critical text

Baya is queen declared the influential poet and critic Andr Breton in his opening essay for her solo show of paintings at Aime
Maeght s gallery in Paris when she was only sixteen years old. Algerian-born Baya Mahieddine (1931, Bordj-el-Kiffan 1998, Blida) or, more commonly, Baya, is a bit of a prodigy of sorts. Orphaned at five, she was adopted by a French archivist and collector who fostered her artistic gifts. Baya created fairy-tale-like worlds and imaginary landscapes that channeled desert knowledges, rituals, and tales, drawing symbols from the mountainous surroundings. She explored fluid representations of the female body in relation to the environment, in which elements of nature such as birds, fish and flowers shape-shift, and fantastical creatures are arranged in recurring patterns recalling the calligraphic. Baya s bold, energetic watercolours, gouaches and ceramics with her use of vibrant colours and boldly-patterned shapes impressed the surrealists, alongside whom she exhibited her works, to the point that Picasso invited her to work with him between 1948 and 1952 at the Madoura ceramic studio in Vallauris. Although Baya was championed by the Parisian avant-garde and is often framed in the context of surrealism, she remained faithful to her own vision, continuously challenging normative expectations. During a time of revolution in Algeria, Baya declined an offer to move to France.

Text by Defne Ayas

The artist’s voice

I take pleasure in painting, but I can't say why my painting is like this or like that. When I paint, I am happy, I am in another world, I forget everything. People tell me, 'Why do you [paint] the same thing?' I believe that if I change, I will no longer be Baya.