Baya Mahieddine Borj El Kifan - Blida, 1931-1998
Baya Mahieddine, born Fatma Haddad in 1931 in Bordj El Kiffan, Algeria, was a self-taught artist raised by her grandmother and later by French painter Marguerite Caminat, who nurtured her early talent. Inspired by Kabyle traditions, nature, and music, Baya began creating vivid gouaches and ceramics in childhood.
Discovered at 16 by Aimé Maeght, she had her first solo exhibition at Galerie Maeght in Paris (1947), with a catalogue preface by André Breton, who also included her in the International Surrealist Exhibition that year. Admired by Picasso and Dubuffet, she worked briefly in Picasso’s Madoura studio in 1948 and is said to have inspired his Women of Algiers series.
As an established artist, Baya returned to Algeria at 20 and married a well-known musician from Blida, thirty years her senior. They had six children. She paused her practice during the Algerian War (1954–62), then resumed exhibiting in Algiers and Paris, including solo shows at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris, 1963) and the Museum of Modern Art of Algiers (1975). A major retrospective was held during her lifetime at the Musée Cantini in Marseille in 1982, attended by President François Mitterrand and Minister of Culture Jack Lang.
Baya remained in Algeria throughout her life, even during the 1990s civil war, and died in Blida in 1998. Her work has since gained international acclaim, with retrospectives at Grey Art Gallery (NYU, 2018), Sharjah Art Museum (2021), Institut du Monde Arabe (2022), and Vieille Charité in Marseille (2023). Her pieces are held in major collections including CNAP (Paris), Maeght Foundation, Mathaf (Doha), the Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah) and Dalloul Foundation (Beirut), and many others worldwide.
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Présences croisées – Crossed Presences
27 Jun - 6 Sep 2025In conjunction with an exceptional conversation marking the launch of the English version catalogue Arab Presences | Modern Art and Decolonisation – Paris 1908–1988 , published by Zamân Books in...Read more -
Baya : Femmes, oiseaux, fleurs et luth
Baya Mahieddine (1931 - 1998) 21 Dec 2022 - 29 Jan 2023Coinciding with the exhibition « Baya, icône de la peinture algérienne Femmes en leur Jardin » at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the gallery is showing a selection...Read more -
Positions and Points of View | Partis Pris et Points de Vue
Group Show 8 Sep - 9 Oct 2022Positions and Points of View By Natasha Boas Ph.D, International Curator Lilia Ben Salah presents Positions and Points of View, the inaugural exhibition of her new gallery centrally located in...Read more
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Présences Arabes - Art moderne et décolonisation Paris, 1908 - 1988
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris April 3, 2024The exhibition 'Arab Presences - Modern Art and Decolonization Paris, 1908 - 1988', which opened on April 3, 2024 at the Musée d'Art Moderne in...Read more -
"Rien ne me manque" Baya & Czermak Ichti au musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes
Première édition de la Contemporaine de Nîmes. Du 5 avril au 10 octobre 2024 April 16, 2024C’est un dialogue artistique intergénérationnel exceptionnel qui prend place au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes. La jeune peintre Neïla Czermak Ichti expose aux côtés de...Read more