The Algerian Teenager Who Painted a World of Liberated Women in 1940s Paris By Alexxa Gotthardt
Feb 5, 2018 4:09 pm Portrait of Baya. Courtesy of Galerie Maeght. Baya, Femme robe jaune cheveux bleus (Woman with blue hair in a yellow dress) , 1947. Photo © Galerie Maeght. Courtesy of Grey Art Gallery. In 1947, when artist Baya Mahieddine was just 16 years old, she painted a radical image of a woman. Not just any woman, but a goddess-queen whose ovaries were marked by flamboyant birds and whose vulva was represented by a red-winged butterfly. Her crown was tall and swathed with flowers, and her gaze authoritative. She stared directly at the viewer with large, piercing eyes. This is just one of 22 paintings on view in the exhibition “Baya: Woman of Algiers,” at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery , the first U.S. solo exhibition of the late Algerian painter and sculptor (who, as an artist, went only by her first name). Baya ’s works depict exuberant scenes of women or nature. And there are no men. Baya, Femme allongée au visage ble...