01 Work, Middle East Artists, Lalla Essaydi's Les Femmes du Maroc/ The Women of Morocco Revisited #1 with Footnotes #67

Lalla Essaydi

Les Femmes du Maroc/ The Women of Morocco Revisited #1, c. 2010

Chromogenic print mounted to aluminum and protected with Mactac lustre laminate

101.6 by 76.1cm. 40 by 30 in.

Private collection

 Sold for 10,080 GBP in October 2022

"Arab women today are facing difficulties and Orientalist attitudes from Arab and Western societies alike...they remain defined by their sexuality, threatening to men but appealing to Western fantasies. My photographs seek to portray Arab women as powerful presences in their own right." (THE ARTIST - QUOTED IN THE STRAITS TIMES - 2018

Lalla A. Essaydi grew up in Morocco and now lives in USA where she received her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/TUFTS University in May 2003. Essaydi’s work is represented by Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston and Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in many major international locales, including Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Texas, Buffalo, Colorado, New York, Syria, Ireland, England, France, the Netherlands, Sharjah, U.A.E., and Japan and is represented in a number of collections, including the Williams College Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Fries Museum, the Netherlands, and The Kodak Museum of Art. Her art, which often combines Islamic calligraphy with representations of the female body, addresses the complex reality of Arab female identity from the unique perspective of personal experience.  In much of her work, she returns to her Moroccan girlhood, looking back on it as an adult woman caught somewhere between past and present, and as an artist, exploring the language in which to  “speak” from this uncertain space.  Her paintings often appropriate Orientalist imagery from the Western painting tradition, thereby inviting viewers to reconsider the Orientalist mythology.  She has worked in numerous media, including painting, video, film, installation, and analog photography.

"In my art, I wish to present myself through multiple lenses -- as artist, as Moroccan, as traditionalist, as Liberal, as Muslim.  In short, I invite viewers to resist stereotypes." More on  Lalla A. Essaydi

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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