The famous Malian photographer Malick Sidibé, nickname «the eye of Bamako» he died yesterday, April 15 at 80. While internationally acclaimed for his formal portrait studio and candid shots of exuberant parties and nightclubs, Malick Sidibé was a friend of Seydou Keïta, currently exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris. Through April 23rd, Jack Shainman Gallery presents Malick Sidibé’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery, which chronicles this master’s iconic career, beginning in 1950s Bamako, Mali. Many of this diverse selection of vintage and contemporary black-and-white prints have never before been exhibited, yet solidify Sidibé’s lasting influence in today’s art world. Street scenes and studio shots, while formally distinct from each other, all capture a pervasive sense of freedom and identity amongst youth in postcolonial Mali and continue to speak to a shared spirit of modernity and diaspora.
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