Celebrating The Brooklyn Museum’s Seydou Keïta exhibition with four new releases.
Danziger Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of "Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens", a major exhibition of the Malian photographer’s work at the Brooklyn Museum. This landmark presentation honors one of the most important portraitists of the 20th century and celebrates Keïta’s unique style as well as his role in the recognition of the quality of African photography.
Born circa 1921, Seydou Keïta lived in Bamako, Mali, where from 1948 through the 1950s he ran a successful portrait studio taking pictures of local individuals and families. Essentially self-taught, Keïta developed his trademark style photographing his sitters in daylight against a variety of backdrops from plain drapes to vibrant African pattern. No matter the situation Keïta had a natural gift and a refined aesthetic that made his portraits distinctive works of art. Technically, his negatives were perfectly exposed and focused. More importantly however, his pictures captured the spirit of his sitters in the most generous manner and in captivating compositions.
Keïta’s story is one of the great stories in photography. Completely unknown outside of Bamako, Keïta was “discovered” by the west in the early 90’s due to the eye of African Art collector Jean Pigozzi. After seeing two uncredited pictures in a 1992 group show of African Art, Pigozzi sent his curator André Magnin to Mali to try to locate the un-named artist from Bamako. Magnin found Keïta repairing bicycles and returned to Paris with 921 negatives Keïta had buried when the government shut down his studio. Pigozzi then arranged for one of the leading printers in Paris to make prints of the images under Keïta’s supervision.
Witihn two years Keïta was given a solo show at the Fondation Cartier followed by an impressive number of museum shows around the world. By the time of his death in 2001 Keïta was not only recognized as a master of photography but in his use of contrasting backdrops his work has influenced a whole generation of artists, most notably painters Mickalene Thomas and Kehinde Wiley..
Danziger Gallery is proud to represent the estate of Seydou Keïta and to have long championed his work. Since first exhibiting Keïta’s photographs twenty years ago the gallery has been dedicated to promoting his legacy, working with the estate to bring his remarkable vision to audiences worldwide.
In conjunction with the Brooklyn Museum exhibition, the estate is releasing four new images. Each of these are available as 24 x 20” silver gelatin prints (editions of 10) or 48 x 64” silver gelatin prints (editions of 5). The first four images in the gallery above are the new releases.