Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination

Through this exhibition, MoMA examines how pictures taken by photographers working in Central and West African cities helped contribute to the Pan-African solidarity of the mid-20th century. These images of everyday citizens, music scenes and youth culture told the story of a changing landscape and emerging new reality, at a time when decolonial change was sweeping across Africa, and the United States was in the midst of the civil rights movement. Artists whose works are featured include Jean Depara, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé and Sanlé Sory.