Bamako, Seated Man with Black Hat #134, 1951-1952

Date1951-52

Maker Seydou Keita Malian, 1923 - 2001

Label TextThe name of this man isn't known, but his portrait tells us a bit about him. He came to a photographic studio on a bustling street near the movie theater, train station, huge market, and very busy zoo, in the city of Bamako. To be able to afford this photographer's services, he was likely to have been employed as a civil servant or a schoolteacher. He appears to be a vision of a comfortable cosmopolitan who might be ready to quote a line or two from the French poet Mallarme, who was popular among Malian readers in the 1950s.

Object number97.34

Provenance[Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, California]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1997

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Feb. 7 - May 19, 2002 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]).

Credit LineGeneral Acquisition Fund

Dimensions24 x 20 in. (60.96 x 50.8 cm)

MediumGelatin silver print