Algerian Radio
Baya Mahieddine (her real name is Fatma Haddad) is considered a uniquely global surrealist phenomenon among Algerian visual artists, and Baya's legacy remains prominent.
- Born on December 12, 1931, in Bordj El Kiffan in the eastern suburbs of Algiers, she tasted the bitterness of orphanhood at the age of five.
- Baya began drawing at the age of thirteen and presented her first exhibition in 1947 when she was not yet 17.
- In her beginnings, Baya relied on "childlike" drawings, employing "purity" with bright, spontaneous colors.
- Baya shed light on nature with its flowers, birds, and fish.
- The French painter Jean Dubuffet commented at the time: "Her works represent the raw material of art."
- She was adopted by the wealthy French intellectual Marguerite Benhoura, who noticed the distinctiveness of her artistic inclination in sculpting small figurines of animals and imaginary characters.
- She was discovered by the pioneer of Surrealism, André Breton, who exhibited Baya's drawings at the Maeght Gallery for Surrealist Art in Paris.
- Baya's paintings attracted the great artists Picasso and Matisse.
- Baya collaborated with Picasso in creating several masterpieces, and together they excelled in decorating famous ceramic works.
- Baya met Georges Braque, one of the founders of the Cubist school, and was recognized by the surrealist milieu.
- She employed the abundance of plants and the joy of colors to create a magical world inhabited by birds, musical instruments, and female figures in luxurious dresses.
- She relied on elements of her rural environment such as flowers, trees, grapevines, and vases, as well as women in their beautiful attire and honest features.
- Baya says: "I paint to express what is inside me. I love touching the brush."
- She also stated: "When we paint with the brush in hand, we escape from everything."
- Baya further noted: "We are in a different world and we create whatever we want to create. It is an individual path that I love."
- She founded "Modern Algerian Painting" with the "Generation of 1930" alongside Mohamed Aksouh and Abdallah Benanteur.
- Among Baya's contemporaries were Abdelkader Guermaz, M'hamed Issiakhem, Souhila Belbahar, Mohammed Khadda, and Choukri Mesli.
- Baya participated in exhibitions in Algeria, Arab countries, Europe, Japan, Cuba, and the United States.
- The Algerian artist's masterpieces are distributed across museums worldwide, and her paintings have been featured on postage stamps.
- Baya Mahieddine passed away on November 9, 1998, in Blida, and her works are preserved in museums in Algeria, Switzerland, Qatar, France, and Mali.
