.-.. ^ w wi £ b^*»»»*%I >.«*: t ss :^y / vv.*s^ In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum May 24-Septemter 29, 1996 Curated by Clare Bell, Okwui Enwezor, Danielle lilkin, and Octavio Zaya This exhibition is funded by The Rockefeller Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Major continuing support and international air transportation are provided by Lufthansa. Digitized by the Internet Archive 2012 with funding from in New METRO Metropolitan York Library Council - http://archive.org/details/africphOObell In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM In/sight: African Photographers, 1940tothe Present Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum May24-September29, 1996 This exhibition is funded in partby The Rockefeller Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation forthe Visual Arts. Majorcontinuing support and in©ternational air transportation are provided by Lufthansa © 1996The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-8109-6895-9 (hardcover) ISBN 0-89207-169-9 (softcover) Printed in Italy by Mariogros, color separations bySele OffsetTorino Hardcoveredition distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 100 Fifth Avenue NewYork, NewYork 10011 Guggenheim Museum Publications 1071 Fifth Avenue NewYork, New York 10128 Designed byCara Galowitz Front:SeydouKeita,Untitled,1959.Gelatin-silver print; image: 35.5x25.5cm, sheet:40x30cm. Fonds Nationald'ArtContemporain, Ministerede la Culture, Paris Inv.: 95148. Back: Lamia Naji, Catania, Italy, 1994. Gelatin- silver print, 40 x 30 cm. Courtesyofthe artist. Contents Preface Thomas Krens 6 Acknowledgments Clare Bell, Olcwui Enwezor, Danielle 1 ilk'in, Octavio Zaya 7 Introduction Clare Bell 9 Colonial Imaginary, Tropes of Disruption: History, Culture, and Representation in the Works of African Photographers Okwui Enwezor and Octavio Zaya 17 Plates 49 A Critical Presence: Drum Magazine in Context Okwui Enwezor 179 Plates 193 Photography and the Substance of the Image Olu Oguibe 231 Artists' Biographies, Statements, and Works in the Exhibition 253 Preface Thoommaass Krvrens This exhibition represents a substantial turning point in the museum's history. For the first time, African and not Europeanconstructsinformtheideassurroundingtheworksonview. FoundedonthetenetsofEuropeanmodernism and itstendencytoward abstract forms, the Solomon R. GuggenheimMuseum, from itsverybeginnings, has served asbothacatalystandchampion oravant-gardetheories and approachesto art. In/sight:AfricanPhotographers, 1Q40 to the Present is also rare in that it recuses major critical attention on issues or representation, a subject that either remained dormant or was subsumed by abstract idioms in past exhibitions. Painting and sculpture from Eastern andWestern Europe, aswell as NorthAmerica, have been the mainstay ofthe museum formorethan half a century. Only inthe lastfewyears havewe hadthe means and opportunityto expand fromthat nucleus, leading us to address the globe at large and to include other mediums in our programming and collecting efforts. Photography is now chief among the museums pursuits. By broadening its engagement with twentieth-century art to encompass photography and multimedia, the institution has embarked on a dynamic journey, one that moves significantly beyond modernism's reflective inquiries to contend with art forms and discourses that challenge conventional ideologies while constantly advancing newmethods of inquiry and debate. In bringing together thirty African-born photographers, this exhibition not only honors the achievements of these artists but highlights a medium whose fundamental relationship to the arts in Africa is largely unfamiliar to Western audiences. As always, our sponsors have proved to be the most pivotal of advocates. In order to embark on this project, the museum needed crucial funds for research and printed materials. Above all, I would like to thank Alberta Arthurs, Director of Arts and Humanities, and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Associate Director of Arts and Humanities, at The Rockefeller Foundation for their unwavering support of the Guggenheim Museum's endeavor to organize a presentation of African art. My appreciation is offered to The AndyWarhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, most especially to Pamela Clapp, Program Director, for her assistance and support. I am equally indebted to Jiirgen Weber, Chairman of Lufthansa German Airlines, for the company's continuing commitment to the museum and its projects. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the exhibitions four curators, who, in the spirit of collaboration and discovery that has defined this undertaking from its outset, have devoted a substantial amount of their time and creativity to selecting and writing about the photographs. The difficult task of locating so many photographers scattered throughoutthe world and bringing to light essential information abouttheir work was accomplished only through their expertise and dedication. Finally, it is the artists and lenders who have truly made the showing of these works at the Guggenheim Museum possible. To them I owe my deepest appreciation.