'Liberation' in Baya 
Mahieddine's Art

by

Selen Soyer

The Algerian artist, Baya Mahieddine notably inspired Picasso’s Femme d’Alger series through her graceful paintings of communal Algerian women. As an orphan, art provided Baya with a vibrant mechanism to cope with her difficult upbringing and express her intersectional identity. She retained her lineage by the portrayal of images that reflected her in the experiences and emotional yearning for a women centred world. 

 

Her art asserts important expressions of Arab and Berber women as well as defies the canonisation of these cultural themes by non-Arab cultures. The expression of multicultural identity was fundamental in her presentation of compelling visual narratives and symbols that impact the emotional, critical and creative responses of those who experience her art. 

 

The women in Baya’s art express a vast range of emotions, from satisfaction to ecstatic joy. Her subjects are not only comfortable in there femininity, but freed by it. Her art portrayed the core theme of the liberated women in a society where women were shackled by patriarchal forces, and despite marrying a traditional Muslim man, Baya retained this theme. 

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