MALICK SIDIBÉ (MALI, 1935-2016) Lot n° 12

Nuit de Noël (Happy Club), 2012 signé, daté et titré en bas à droite dans la marge “Nuit de Noël (Happyclub) 1963 Malick Sidibé/ 2012” tirage argentique signed, dated and titled “Nuit de Noël (Happy-club) 1963 Malick Sidibé/ 2012” to the lower margin gelatin silver print 24 x 17,5cm. 9 7/16 x 6 11/16in. Provenance Collection privée, France Expositions Gothenburg, The Hasselblad Center, Malick Sidibé, 25 October 2003 - 11 January 2004, p. 82 (un autre exemplaire exposé et illustré) Houston, USA, African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, 29 January - 8 May 2005, pp. 33, 184 & 221 (un autre exemplaire exposé et illustré, pp. 47 & 185) Houston, USA, The Menil Collection; Lagos, Nigeria, Centre for Contemporary Art; and St. Louis, USA, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, The Progress of Love, 2 December 2012 - 20 April 2013, pp. 30 & 69 (un autre exemplaire exposé et illustré) Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain à Paris, Malick Sidibé, Mali Twist, 20 October 2017 - 25 February 2018, pp. 195 & 259 (un autre exemplaire exposé et illustré) Littérature Giovanna Cugini, ed., Collection of Contemporary African Artists (Lugano, Switzerland, 2020), p. 361 (un autre exemplaire illustré) Chika Okeke-Agulu et al., African Artists From 1882 to Now (Londres, 2021), p. 295 (un autre exemplaire illustré) Malick Sidibé étudie d'abord la joaillerie à l'Ecole des artisans soudanais de Bamako avant d'être embauché pour décorer le studio du photographe français Gérard Guillat. Devenu apprenti, il adopte rapidement la technique et l'oeil d'un photographe professionnel à part entière. Initié et amateur des clubs de Bamako dans les années 1960 et 1970, Malick Sidibé capture des scènes et des moments spontanés comme Nuit de Noël, illustrant simultanément l'intimité et l'anticipation d'une rencontre impromptue, ainsi que la fierté et l'exubérance d'une nation nouvellement libérée. “Sa photographie était pensée sur le mode de ce qui surgit, de ce qui arrive au hasard, de la bonne rencontre. Il était dans la présence, immortalisait des moments. Nuit de Noël, d'une douceur et d'une tendresse “infinies”, est un instant volé au temps. Ses images dévoilent une conscience aiguë de coïncidences heureuses qui l'ont voulu infatigable, généreux, aimant.” (M. Sidibé, p.9; André Magnin.) Bibliographie Malick Sidibé, Mali Twist, exh. cat., Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, 20 October 2017 - 25 February 2018 Malick Sidibé began his creative practice studying jewellery making at the Maison des artisans du Soudan, Mali (known as the Maison des Artisans de Bamako since 2006). From there, he was hired to decorate the studio of French photographer Gérard Guillat, who eventually offered him a position as an apprentice. Sidibé quickly picked up the professional studio techniques which he coupled with his unique creative vision in his own photography practice. In 1957, Guillat's studio closed, prompting Sidibé to begin recording Bamako nightlife on film. Drawn particularly to the Bamako clubs in the 1960s and 1970s, Sidibé captured spontaneous scenes of the vibrant youth culture of the Malian capital, such as that depicted in Nuit de Noël - a photograph which illustrates both the intimacy and anticipation of an impromptu encounter, as well as the exuberance of a newly liberated nation. “[Sidibé's] photography is conceived out of the fashion in which it arises, what happens by chance, the right encounter. He was in the present, immortalising moments. Nuit de Noël, with its ‘infinite' softness and tenderness, is a moment stolen from time. His images reveal an acute awareness of happy coincidences which made him tireless, generous, and loving” (André Magnin, 2017: p. 9). Bibliography Malick Sidibé, Mali Twist, exh. cat., Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, 20 October 2017 - 25 February 2018