The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 14, 2026

A vertically oriented color photograph depicts a young girl with light skin tone from the shoulders up, facing forward and looking directly at us. She wears a white headscarf with a scalloped embroidered pattern across her forehead, the fabric wrapping her face and draping over her shoulders. She has large dark eyes and closed pink lips. A black border with notched corners and white edges frames the portrait against a dark background.

Muazez

1998

Céline van Balen

(Dutch, b. 1965)
Netherlands
chromogenic process color print
Image: 33.2 x 26.3 cm (13 1/16 x 10 3/8 in.); Mounted: 37.1 x 29.7 cm (14 5/8 x 11 11/16 in.); Matted: 66 x 55.9 cm (26 x 22 in.)
Gift of Friends of Photography 2002.11
Location: Not on view

Description

During the late 1990s, Dutch artist Céline van Balen created a remarkable series, Islamic Girls. Featuring young women from different immigrant Muslim communities in the Netherlands, these compositionally spare photographs, with dark backgrounds and gentle facial highlights, are reminiscent of Northern Renaissance portraiture. Van Balen focuses on the heads of the sitters, whose piercing eyes seem to stare directly at the viewer. Unsmiling mouths and solemn gazes disclose little of the inner personalities of the girls. While the girls' head coverings proclaim their common faith, differences in eye color, skin tone, and the shape of their features reveal the ethnic diversity in the Muslim community.
  • Gifts from the CMA Friends of Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 7, 2002-April 23, 2003).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; December 7, 2002 - April 23, 2003. "Gifts from the CMA Friends of Photography."
  • {{cite web|title=Muazez|url=false|author=Céline van Balen|year=1998|access-date=14 August 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2002.11