Untitled
Provenance : Private Collection, France. Anon. sale, Artcurial, 18 May 2016, Lot 70. Acquired from the above by the present owner.
Notes : “When I paint, I am happy and I am in another world.” Baya Mahieddine The French Surrealist artist Andre Breton wrote the dedication to Baya’s Mahieddine’s 1947 Galerie Maeght exhibition in Paris and subsequently, it is reported, began referring to her as ‘Queen Baya.’ An apt name for such an artist who at the tender age of sixteen had traveled from her native Algeria to the de facto center of the art world at the time and captivated audiences. Baya’s paintings are filled with expressive, assertive women and although her female figures are not self-portraits they certainly are ‘queens’ of their composition, filling the entire picture plane, holding court with vibrant colors, fruits or birds, and oversize musical instruments. Baya’s work has been classified as both surrealist and art brut, along with naïve and outsider. However, Baya rejected these labels refusing to categorize her art by the constructs of the western cannon or any group manifesto. Her work was hers, solely hers – her escape from loss, her desire to find happiness and to see women on a grand stage surrounded by all the pleasures they may desire. Her women exude freedom, energy, contentment, ecstatic joy, self-assuredness, and of course like the artist herself – individuality.
