On view at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is an exhibition exploring the ideals of Pan-African solidarity and culture. Entitled Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, the exhibition showcases how photography celebrates and fuels this cultural representation. It explores the response to the cultural changes that were sweeping both Africa with decolonialization and the US with the Civil Rights movement. The cultural shift was omnipresent and these lively portraits on view at MoMA present a vivid showcase of the celebration of Pan-African culture.
The show at MoMA is influenced by the publication with a parallel name, The Idea of Africa by the late philosopher V. Y. Mudimbe (1941–2025). The exhibition brings together more than 100 pieces of work by 20th-century photographers like Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Jean Depara, Sanlé Sory, and Ambroise Ngaimoko, whose work in West and Central Africa during the “golden age of African portraiture” contributes greatly to this era. Images by James Barnor and Kwame Brathwaite illuminate Pan-African modes of image-making across the African diaspora. The work of contemporary artists of African descent, including Samuel Fosso, Silvia Rosi, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby is also showcased. The photos appear alongside ephemera selected from the archive of the artist collective Air Afrique.
Oluremi C. Onabanjo, The Peter Schub Curator, Department of Photography, spoke in regards to the exhibit. “As we continue to witness transformative shifts in the global geopolitical order, it is instructive to revisit a moment in history that saw the disintegration of colonial territories and the formation of transnational solidarity across the African continent and diaspora. This exhibition locates dazzling modes of Pan-African possibility in images made by inventive photographers who registered and beckoned in new worlds.”
The works on view transcend time and place, offering a rich and vivid perspective of a culture defined by style, poise, entertainment, talent and spirit. Posed and candid, the portraits could have been taken decades ago, yesterday or today. Solidarity and strength are timeless; shown here in the photographic works on view in Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination.
Elizabeth Hazard
Ideas of Africa : Portraiture and Political Imagination
December 14, 2025 – July 25, 2026
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
11 W 53rd St.
New York, NY 10019
www.moma.org
