Malick Sidibé (1935–2016) - Deux tirages vintages uniques "Les Amoureux" - 1967

Exceptional museum pieces (unique vintage prints; similar ones form part of the Centre Pompidou collections in Paris, and MoMA in New York has just acquired one this year.) It was the reference system used by Malick Sidibé for ordering prints. Most vintage photos exist in no other form, as the prints were not ordered and the negatives often did not survive. These photos provide a unique glimpse into social life in Bamako, Mali, in the 1960s and 1970s. About Malick Sidibé's vintage prints (excerpt from the exhibition 'Mali Twist' at the Fondation Cartier): "I displayed [these prints] in front of the studio where the youths gathered. It was like in a cinema. Some ordered prints without buying them; the most important thing was that the photos be seen." Commissioned by young Bamako residents dressed in the latest fashion, these prints are the memory of moments of joy and pleasure when these youths discovered their image magnified by their 'friend' Malick Sidibé. Work exhibited as part of the Rencontres de la photographie in Arles in 2026.

Estimate:£500.56

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