Baya (artist)

Baya Mahieddine (Arabic: باية محي الدين) or Fatima Haddad (Arabic: فاطمة حداد, born in Bordj El Kiffan on 12 December 1931; died 9 November 1998) was an Algerian artist. While she did not identify her work as belonging to a particular art genre, critics have classified her paintings as surrealist, primitive, naïve, and modern. She was an entirely self-taught artist, working both as a painter and, to a lesser extent, in pottery.

At the age of sixteen Baya had her first exhibition, in Paris, where she gained notice from artists such as Pablo Picasso and André Breton. Her work was presented in various exhibitions in France and Algeria, and has appeared on Algerian postage stamps.