Malick Sidibé Mali, 1935-2016
Malick Sidibé
He was a malinian photographer (Soloba, 1935 – Bamako, 2016) well known for capturing the street life of Bamako.
In 1955, Gérard Guillat became his first teacher as he worked in his photography studio as an assistant, until the studio closed two years later. Since the opening of his own studio in 1962, he started taking photos of social events as sport matches, nightclub parties and concerts that took place in the 1960s in Bamako. The next decade focused his labor on taking portraits. Althought he was popular in Mali, he became worldwide famous as he participated in Biennale di Bamako in 1994. From that moment, he started to exhibit his work all over the world, to mention some of them:
Malick Sidibé: Bamako 1962–1976, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris (1995).
Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva, Switzerland (2000).
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2001).
Malick Sidibé. The Eye of Modern Mali, Somerset House, London (2017).
Sidibé’s work is held in various museums as:
- The Art Institute of Chicago.
- The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC).
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
He has been awarded multiple times:
- Hasselblad Award for photography (2003).
- Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, Venice Biennale (2007).
- Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement, International Center of Photography (2008).