About the Malian photographer, Malick SIDIBÉ (1935-2016)

Malick SIDIBÉ he had a long and fruitful career in Bamako, Mali. His life as a photographer began in 1955, when photographer Gérard Guillat came to the school looking for a student to decorate his studio, eventually hiring him. Impressed with his work, Guillat took him on as an apprentice. When Guillat closed his studio in 1957, SIDIBÉ began taking photographs of Bamako nightlife. In 1962 he opened his own studio and increasingly became noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako. In the 1970s, he turned towards the making of studio portraits. While he was locally famous for decades, he was not introduced into the Western fine art world until 1994 when he had a chance encounter with curator André Magnin. One of the best known of his works is 'Nuit de Noel, 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. It was images like these that revealed how his photographic style was inextricably linked to music. It is no surprise that other Malian artists, such as the musicians Salif Keita & Ali Farka Touré, also came to international attention at almost the same moment as Malian photography was being recognized. In 2003 Malick SIDIBÉ received the Hasselblad Award and in 2007 he became the first African and the first photographer to be awarded the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. Other awards: ICP Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement (2008) and a World Press Photo award (2010).

Publications by, with contrbutions by Malick SIDIBÉ and on his work

'Photographes de Bamako: de 1935 à nos jours' (1989, together with photographs by Seydou KEITA, Félix DIALLO, a.o.); 'In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present' (1996, together with works by Samuel FOSSO, David GOLDBLATT, Bob GOSANI, Seydou KEITA, Peter MAGUBANE, Santu MOFOKENG, a.o.); 'Retrats de l'Anima: Fotografia Africana' (1997); 'Malick Sidibé' (1998); 'Clubs of Bamako' (2000); 'You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait – Photographs of Seydou Keita and Malick Sidibe' (2001); 'Malick Sidibé, Photographe' (2001); 'Portraits of Pride: West African Portrait Photography' (2002, with Samuel FOSSO, Seydou KEITA); 'The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibé and James Brown' (2001); 'Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire' (2002); 'The Hasselblad Award' (2003);  'African Art Now: Masterpieces From the Jean Pigozzi Collection' (2005); 'Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture' (2005); 'Chemises' (2007); 'Malick Sidibe' (2008); 'Perception' (2008); 'The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles, Recent Art' (2008); 'La Vie en Rose' (2010); 'The Portrait of Mali' (2011); 'Au village' (2011); 'Photo Poche No. 145' (2013); 'It's too funky in here' (2016); ''Mali Twist' (2017); 'Sous l'oeil de Malick Sidibé et un chant contre le sida' (2019)

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SC, 25 x 32,5 cm., 168 pp.
248,00 € Weight 1.1 kg
The b/w photographs in 'It's too funky in here' dance like the photographed dancers, twinkle like the eyes of the portrayed youth. Malick SIDIBE is the catcher of joy. Omnipresent at decisive moments that really needed to be caught - the memory of Bamako.
0,00 € *
HC, 30 x 30 cm., 108 pp.
178,00 € *
SC, 24 x 28 cm., 140 pp., b/w & color ills., text language: English
0,00 € * Weight 1.1 kg
from the Walther Collection by Okwui Enwezor (ed.) With photo works by Seydou KEITA, Malick SIDIBÉ, J.D. Okhai OJEIKERE, Santu MOFOKENG, August SANDER, Bernd & Hilla BECHER (among others)
68,00 € *
'Photographers A-Z' brings together photographers who have made a significant contribution to photographic culture, as well as the most important photographic volumes of the past century. The entries are illustrated with facsimiles from books & magazines.
from 16,00 €
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions (a selection)

1995: 'Malick Sidibé: Bamako 1962–1976, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris
1999: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; 'Malick Sidibé. Photographie', Dany Keller Galerie, Munich; 'Cool Cats and Twist Club', Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
2000: Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva
2001: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome & Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
2003: Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden
2008: 'Chemises', FOAM, Amsterdam
2009: 'Bamako Nights', Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon sur Saône,
2010: 'Studio Malick', Tristan Hoare, London
2011: 'The Eye of Bamako', M+B Gallery, Los Angeles
2016: 'It's Too Funky In Here!', FIFTY ONE TOO, Antwerp.

Group exhibitions (a selection)

1995: 'Seydou Keita & Malick Sidibe: Photographs From Mali', Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
1996: Double vie, Double vue' & 'By Night', Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
2000: 'Africa: Past-Present, Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp
2001–2003: 'You look beautiful like that: The Portrait of Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé', Fogg Museum; UCLA; Norton Museum & Williams College Museum, Williamstown (USA); National Portrait Gallery, London
2004: 'Seeds and Roots', The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
2007: 'Why Africa? The work of 13 photographers' (including Malick SIDIBÉ, Seydou KEITA, ao.), Pinacoteca G. e Marella Agnelli, Turin
2010: 'Un Rêve Utile: Photographie Africaine 1960–2010', BOZAR – Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
2012: 'Gaze – The Changing Face of Portrait Photography', Istanbul Modern
2020: 'Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collections', The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston