Ahmed Benyahia

On 18 March 2021, the work of Ahmed Benyahia was the subject of a noted conference given by distinguished University of California, Los Angeles Professor Susan Slymovics hosted by the MacMillan Center Council on Middle East Studies (CMES) of Yale University. Titled "Ahmed Benyahia, Artist: The Provenance of an Algerian Public Sculpture" , the lecture focused on the long and convoluted story of the artist's 1968 sculpture of Algeria hero and martyr Zighoud Youcef.

Ahmed Benyahia is also known for portraying the role of Algerian nationalist militant Lamine Debaghine in the 2008 biographical movie of Algerian war hero and martyr Mostefa Ben Boulaïd, as well as in the 2014 biographical movie of Algerian independence leader Krim Belkacem, both by Algerian film director and screenwriter Ahmed Rachedi.

He is the brother of Samta Benyahia of whom he was the mentor for several years, as well as the brother of the late Doctor Azzouz Benyahia of Constantine, who was the target of a political assassination in the aftermath of the Algerian legislative elections of 1997.

He is a notable alumnus of the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris, where as a student in the late 1960s he played an instrumental role in successfully bringing French sculptor César Baldaccini as a Professor there, of whom he was to become a distinguished disciple and protégé.

In 1957, while the apex of the Algerian War of Independence, at age 13, he joined Constantine's École municipale des Beaux-arts, then under French administration, which allowed him to teach painting, drawing, and history at the Hihi El Mekki High School in Kantara for a year.

After distinguishing himself at l'École nationale des beaux-arts [fr] in Algiers, where his works were featured on several major international events (such as, among others, the First International Forum of Algeria) in 1964, he moved to Paris, France, in 1966, where he was admitted to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1972, he was awarded the post of professor at the University of Constantine, and in 1977 exhibited his artworks in the city for the first time. Subsequently, he staged a series of exhibitions in France. While in Constantine, he was commissioned to design a building to commemorate the life of Algerian hero and martyr Zighoud Youcef, who died in 1956 at the age of 35, and the Guelma memorial, which commemorates the victims of the Sétif and Guelma massacre on 8 May 1945.

Ahmed Benyahia (Arabic: أحمد بن يحيى; born in Constantine, Algeria, on 11 May 1943) is an Algerian artist.

Born on 11 May 1943, in what is today Chelghoum Laïd (formerly known as Chateau-dun-du-Rhumel), Ahmed Benyahia received his early education there.