exhibitions
Regardez-moi! Photographs by Malick Sidibé
Artist
- Malick Sidibé
Special Events
Friday, 21 November 2008
"Malick Sidibé: Visualizing Identity"
Lecture by Candace M. Keller, brochure essayist
Assistant Professor of Art History,
Michigan State University
Reception
About the Exhibition
Regardez-moi! Photographs by Malick Sidibé, the Malian artist's first exhibition on the West Coast, will feature 333 gelatin silver prints created between 1962 and 2003. This retrospective includes examples from Sidibé's signature bodies of work: studio portraits and commissioned reportage photographs of private events, such as weddings and surprise parties. The title of the exhibition, Regardez-moi! (Look at Me!), pays homage to Sidibé's own use of the phrase as a recurring image title and highlights the importance of self-identity in his portraiture, while honoring the multitude of patrons who have fueled his life's work over the past forty years.
Malick Sidibé was born in 1936 in Soloba, a small rural town in the West African nation of Mali. In 1955 he enrolled in the École des Artisans Soudanais (School of Sudanese Craftsmen), now the Institute National des Arts (National Art Institute), in the capital city of Bamako. When Sidibé graduated from the college in 1955, he began working in the city for French photographer Gérard Guillat-Guignard at his commercial studio and supply store Photo Service. In 1962 he left Photo Service and opened Studio Malick in Bagadadji, a popular neighborhood of Bamako. When African photography caught the attention of Western collectors, dealers and curators in the 1990s, Sidibé became recognized as one of the most accomplished practitioners in the field. Since that time, his photographs-now enlarged and reprinted-have been exhibited in numerous venues worldwide and have been published in various articles, books and exhibition catalogues.
In 2003 Sidibé became the first African photographer to garner the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. Four years later, he received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Most recently, the International Center of Photography in New York City honored the artist with a Lifetime Achievement accolade during its 24th Annual Infinity Award ceremony in 2008. At seventy-two, Sidibé continues to make photographs at Studio Malick.
Regardez-moi! Photographs by Malick Sidibé is organized by Tina Yapelli, director of the University Art Gallery at San Diego State University. An illustrated brochure with an essay by Candace M. Keller, Assistant Professor of Art History at Michigan State University, accompanies the exhibition. The exhibition is sponsored by the School of Art, Design and Art History; the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts; and the fund for Instructionally Related Activities. Additional support is provided by the San Diego State University Art Council, a community support group of the School of Art, Design and Art History. Malick Sidibé is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.