Algerian Bayah Mohie Eddine greatly admired in long artistic career

2005-09-01

Bayah Mohie Eddine is an intuitive painter with an excellent style infused with childish spontaneity, according to Algerian critic Ahmed Abdelkarim.

(ArabGulf 08/05)

[File] "A Woman and a Bird in a Cage"

Bayah Mohie Eddine's distinctive artistic style with childish spontaneity has created a new school of Algerian and Arab plastic arts. The fact that the style infuses elements of the Algerian national identity is the secret to her reputation and acclaim.

Mohie Eddine is described by Algerian artist Hassan Bouabdellah "as a gift from God in all its perfection" in a documentary on her paintings.

In his analysis of her career, Moroccan critic Ibrahim Hassan says, "The contemporary plastic art emerged in Algeria in the 1920s thanks to the prominence of many creative painters who were faithful to the heritage of their country and forefathers, given the colonial conditions." Among these painters were Azouaoui Moamar, Abdelhalim Hamech, Mostafa Bendabagh, Abderrahmane Sahouli, and Mohamed Rassem.

Later, artists such as Mohamed Azemiouli, Mohamed Khedda and Mohamed Askhayem started to emerge. They were influenced by Western movements and the Moroccan School of Fine Arts, which was founded in 1920 by the French.

The Algerian plastic scene was then reinforced in 1947 by the attention showered on Eddine, who was 16 when she organised an individual plastic exposition at the Maeght Gallery in Paris.

Born in 1931 in Brouje El Kifane, Mohie Eddine, an orphan, was adopted by a French artist named Margharet Camina, renowned for the painting of miniatures and silk drawings. Her husband was an English artist who specialised in portrait drawing.

Pablo Picasso, Paul Brach and Henri Matisse, as well as poet André Breton were among her early admirers.

Besides painting and drawing, Mohie Eddine worked with clay and ceramics. She had a large workshop in suburban Paris next to Picasso's, with whom she worked for a month in 1948.

Mohie Eddine has held plastic expositions in Paris, Algiers, Tizi Ouzou, Annaba, Marseilles, and Brussels.