A Companion to Modern African Art, First Edition. Edited by Gitti Salami and Monica Blackmun Visonà. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Algerian Painters as Pioneers of Modernism Mary Vogl A century and a half after Eugène Delacroix painted Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, the London-based Algerian artist Houria Niati (b. 1948) deconstructed his “masterwork” in her 1982 installation No to Torture (Figure 10.1). Five oil paint- ings rendered in an abstracted style – plus drawings, photos, a soundtrack, and live performances – reflect, distort, reject, and invent anew the Women of Algiers. The glaring primary colors, twisted shapes, and unambiguous title send the clear message that contemporary Algerian artists are deconstructing European art on their own terms. 1 Niati’s work represents a dominant trajectory in the Algerian art of the last century: a generative confrontation with European art. New forms are created not by simply rejecting models but by recombining and transforming them. As the highly influential Algerian artist and critic Mohammed Khadda (1930–1991) argued, European influence on the art of the Maghreb, as the countries of northwestern Africa are known, has been “complex, mutilating and enriching at the same time.” 2 Regrettably, even Algerian scholars have largely remained ignorant of the place of modernist painting in the art history of Algeria. The National Museum of Fine Arts in Algiers, the country’s capital, houses a stunning collection of these works, and paint- ings by Algerian artists are now found in galleries and museums around the world. While in many aspects the development of modern Algerian art is similar to that of its “sister” countries of the Maghreb, Morocco and Tunisia, and in some aspects to that of its “cousin” Egypt, 3 Algeria’s long colonial history and violent struggle for decolo- nization has shaped its art in unique ways. The gradual loosening of French hegemony and strengthening of local agency can be traced in the history of painting in Algeria. This essay will examine Algerian and diasporic painters who have made a significant contribution to the development of modern art both locally and internationally. In 1832, Delacroix traveled to North Africa as part of a diplomatic mission and returned to France with a multitude of sketches and watercolors and a sense of wonder at all he had seen. 4 He did not observe any paintings hung on walls and North Africans 10 0002003659.INDD 197 7/26/2013 7:27:49 AM