Event Details
Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination
Can a photographic portrait inspire political imagination? Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination examines how photographers and their sitters contributed to the proliferation of Pan-African solidarity during the mid-20th century. Embracing the international spirit of the time, the exhibition gathers striking pictures by photographers working in Central and West African cities. They created images of everyday citizens, dazzling music scenes, and potent manifestations of youth culture that reflected emerging political realities.
Photographs by Jean Depara, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, and Sanlé Sory portray residents across Bamako, Bobo-Dioulasso, and Kinshasa at a time when the winds of decolonial change swept the African continent in tandem with the burgeoning US Civil Rights movement. The exhibition also spotlights James Barnor and Kwame Brathwaite—photographers living in Europe and North America who contributed to the construction of Africa as a political idea. Contemporary works by artists such as Samuel Fosso, Silvia Rosi, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby show the enduring relevance of these themes. Brimming with possibility, Ideas of Africa: Portraits and Political Imagination embraces the creative potential of the photographic portrait and its political resonance across the globe.
Venue: Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues
Map
212---7-0-8-9400
Buy Tickets | Learn More |
Will You Go?
More Events...
An Evening with Coco Fusco at Museum of Modern Art
Mon | 7 PM
Artist Coco Fusco joins us for a screening of her Your Eyes Will Be an Empty Word (2021) and selections from The Couple in the Cage: Guatinaui Odyssey (1992), followed by a discussion of her recent wo...
The Latest in the Middle East with Bernard Haykel at 9/11 Museum
Mon | 6PM
The Middle East has been transformed in the past few years as power dynamics have shifted dramatically in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Middle East expert Bernard Haykel returns to the 9/11 Memori...
Lunch & Learn: Educated for Freedom at NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)
Tue | 1PM
On February 11th, join us as Dr. Anna Mae Duane discusses her book, Educated for Freedom: The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up to Change a Nation. In the 1820s, few Americans...