Malick Sidibé

Malick Sidibé
Born 1935 or 1936
Soloba, Mali
Died April 14, 2016(2016-04-14) (aged 80–81)
Bamako, Mali
Citizenship Mali
Alma mater Institut National des Arts de Bamako
Occupation photographer

Malick Sidibé (born 1935 or 1936 – April 14, 2016)[1][2] was a Malian photographer noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako.[1][3][4] During his life, Sidibé gained an international reputation and was considered, along with Seydou Keïta, Mali's most famous photographer.[5]

His work has been the subject of a number of publications and been exhibited throughout Europe, and in the United States. In 2007 he received a Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Biennale,[6] becoming both the first photographer[4] and African so recognized.[7] Other awards he received included a Hasselblad Award for photography,[8] an International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement,[9] and a World Press Photo award.[10] Sidibé's work is held in the collections of The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC),[11] the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles,[12] and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[13]

Life and work

Sidibé's studio in Bamako showing his cameras and equipment

Sidibé was born in the village of Soloba, 300 km from Bamako, in Mali. From the age of five or six, he began herding animals and working the land. He became the first member of his family to attend school after he was chosen by the village chief to be sent to the white school in Yanfolila for an education.[5] During his first year he became interested in art and by high school, he was doing drawings for official events. It was his skill in charcoal drawings that drew much attention to his talent and led to his selection for the Institut National des Arts de Bamako in the capital city of Bamako.[5] While at this school, he was noticed by photographer Gérard Guillat-Guignardand, who became a mentor and from whom, through close observation and practice, Sidibé learned the craft of photography.[5]

In 1952 Sidibé moved to Bamako. In 1955, he undertook an apprenticeship at Guillat-Guignard's Photo Service Boutique, also known as Gégé la pellicule. In 1956 he bought his first camera, a Brownie Flash, and in 1957 became a full-time photographer, opening his own studio (Studio Malick) in Bamako in 1958. He specialized in documentary photography, focusing particularly on the youth culture of the Malian capital.[14] Sidibé took photographs at sport events, the beach, nightclubs, concerts, and even tagged along while the young men seduced girls.[3][7] He increasingly became noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako. In the 1970s, Sidibé turned towards the making of studio portraits. His background in drawing became useful:

As a rule, when I was working in the studio, I did a lot of the positioning. As I have a background in drawing, I was able to set up certain positions in my portraits. I didn't want my subjects to look like mummies. I would give them positions that brought something alive in them.[9]

Sidibé was discovered for an international audience thanks to the photographer Françoise Huguier, who worked with André Magnin, a curator who had been sent to West Africa by a French collector, Jean Pigozzi, in the 1990s.[5] One of the best known of Sidibé's works from that time is Nuit de Noel, Happy Club (Christmas Eve, Happy Club) (1963), depicting a smiling couple — the man in a suit, the woman in a Western party dress (but barefoot) and both dancing, presumably, to music.[14] And it was images like these that revealed how Sidibé's photographic style was inextricably linked to music. This connection is something that Sidibé had spoken about during interviews, over the years.[15]

"We were entering a new era, and people wanted to dance. Music freed us. Suddenly, young men could get close to young women, hold them in their hands. Before, it was not allowed. And everyone wanted to be photographed dancing up close."[4]

It is perhaps no surprise that other Malian artists, such as the musicians Salif Keita and Ali Farka Touré, also came to international attention in the 1990s at almost the same moment as Malian photography was being recognized.[16][17]

"Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, in graphic, vigorous, black-and-white pictures, Sidibé captured the dynamism and joy of a rapidly changing West Africa. In particular, he honed in on the vernaculars of style: the brash suits, the purposefully clashing prints, the girls pairing their headdresses with their cat-eye shades, the little kids in full tribal costume and face paint, the dancers kicking off their shoes. The party, the club, the dance floor—these were his settings, the places where people came to be seen and dressed the part. From midnight till dawn, Sidibé roamed the city, party-hopping, shooting hundreds of frames every weekend."[18]

The Grammy award-winning video of Janet Jackson's 1997 song "Got 'til It's Gone" is strongly indebted to the photographic style of Sidibé,[19] and the video pays tribute to a particular time (during the 1960s and 70s)[20][21] that Sidibé's pictures had helped to document. This was the time period just after the French Sudan (and then the Mali Federation) had gained their Independence from France in 1960.[22] This new era (post-1960) has, subsequently, been characterized by various observers as a post-colonial (and post-apartheid) awakening of consciousness. Many of those who admire Sidibé's work believe that he somehow captured the joy and wonder of this awakening, and that it is seen in the faces, scenes, and images that he helped to illuminate.[15][23][24] More recently, Sidibé's influence can be seen directly through Inna Modja’s 2015 video for her song "Tombouctou,"[3][24] as it was filmed in Sidibé's photography studio.

In 2006, Tigerlily Films made a documentary entitled Dolce Vita Africana about Sidibé, filming him at work in his studio in Bamako, having a reunion with many of his friends (and former photographic subjects) from his younger days, and speaking to him about his work.[25]

Sidibé became the first African and the first photographer to be awarded the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Robert Storr, the show's artistic director, said:

No African artist has done more to enhance photography's stature in the region, contribute to its history, enrich its image archive or increase our awareness of the textures and transformations of African culture in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st than Malick Sidibé.[6]

Sidibé died[20] of complications from diabetes in Bamako.[4][26] He was survived by 17 children and three wives.[27]

Publications

Publications by Sidibé

Publications with contributions by Sidibé

Publications about Sidibé

Awards

Collections

Sidibé's negative collection, in his studio in Bamako

Sidibé's work is held in the following collections (partial list):

Exhibitions

This is a partial list of exhibitions by Sidibé.

Solo exhibitions

This is a partial list, meant to give a representative selection:

Exhibitions with others or at festivals

Film and television appearances

Notes

  1. The text can be read here within the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts website.

References

  1. 1 2 Groves, Nancy (15 April 2016). "Malian photographer Malick Sidibé dies aged 80". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  2. "Disparition du photographe malien Malick Sidibé par Le Quotidien de l'Art". Le Quotidien de l'Art. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  3. 1 2 3 Shakur, Fayemi (11 April 2016). "Malick Sidibé: Creative Force of African Culture". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Laurent, Olivier (15 April 2016). "In Memoriam: Malick Sidibé (1936 – 2016)". Time. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Grimes, William (15 April 2016). "Malick Sidibé, Photographer Known for Social Reportage in Mali, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 Lawrence van Gelder (June 11, 2007), Malian Photographer Honored at Biennale The New York Times
  7. 1 2 BBC Staff (15 April 2016). "Mali's pioneering photographer Malick Sidibe dies". BBC News.
  8. 1 2 "Previous Award Winners". Hasselblad Foundation. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 "Interview with Malick Sidibé". LensCulture.
  10. 1 2 "Arts and Entertainment, first prize singles". World Press Photo. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  11. 1 2 "Malick Sidibé". The Contemporary African Art Collection. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  12. 1 2 "Femme Peul du Niger". J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  13. 1 2 "Malick Sidibé: Malian, 1936–2016". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  14. 1 2 Martha Schwendener (February 27, 2014), The Young and the Rebellious: A Review of ‘Malick Sidibé: Chemises’ in Poughkeepsie The New York Times.
  15. 1 2 "Malick Sidibe & Janet Jackson". Musings of a Gemini Girl.
  16. Martha Schwendener (February 8, 2013), Portraits of a Continent’s Vitality, Past and Present The New York Times.
  17. O'Hagan, Sean. "An appreciation: Malick Sidibé, 1936-2016". The Guardian.
  18. Rebecca Bengal. "Malick Sidibé, Mali Documentary and Style Photographer, 19362016". Vogue.
  19. Hillary Crosley Coker. "Malick Sidibé, Iconic Malian Photographer, Has Died". Jezebel.
  20. 1 2 "In memoriam". The Economist. 16 April 2016.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "M+B Photo Gallery: Malick Sidibé". M+B Photo.com.
  22. "Mali country profile" (PDF). Library of Congress Federal Research Division. January 2005. This article is in the public domain.
  23. "Master Photographer Malick Sidibé Dead at 80". CraveOnline.
  24. 1 2 "Malick Sidibé’s Work Will Live On After Death". Okayafrica.
  25. "Dolce Vita Africana". African Film Festival Inc.
  26. Grimes, William (2016-04-15). "Malick Sidibé, Photographer Known for Social Reportage in Mali, Dies at 80". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  27. "Malick Sidibé, Photographer Known for Social Reportage in Mali, Dies at 80," by William Grimes, The New York Times, April 15, 2016
  28. "Malick Sidibé : photographs.".
  29. "Chemises".
  30. "The poetics of cloth : African textiles, recent art". Worldcat.
  31. "Malian portrait photography". Worldcat.
  32. In and Out of the Studio: Photographic Portraits from West Africa The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  33. "Malick Sidibé". SFMOMA.
  34. "BMA Voices: The Boxer.".
  35. "Malick Sidibe - Jack Shainman Gallery".
  36. Permanent Collection: Untitled, c. 1974| The Studio Museum in Harlem
  37. Permanent Collection: Groupe de Barbus| The Studio Museum in Harlem
  38. "Nuit de Noël". International Center of Photography.
  39. "Malick Sidibé". International Center of Photography.
  40. "Fantastic donations of photographic art". Moderna Museet i Stockholm.
  41. "Keita, Sidibé and Fosso". Moderna Museet i Stockholm.
  42. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Galerie du jour agnès b.: Les artistes: Malick Sidibé – this is a PDF listing Sidibé's exhibitions since the first one in 1995. Access to the .pdf is provided here→Artist page biography
  43. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Malick Sidibé".
  44. "Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli Why Africa? La collezione Pigozzi".
  45. O'Hagan, Sean (12 November 2011). "Paris Photo 2011 – review: Grand Palais, Paris". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  46. "Barbican - Everything Was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s". barbican.org.uk.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Malick Sidibé.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.