In Images, a New Nation Emerges

A young couple dance together, heads down and close in the heat of a late-night courtyard. A woman crouches low on a bare cement floor, smiling shyly and clutching a glittering handbag. A man poses under a rack of battered 45s, dark eyes gazing with sly bemusement over the curve of his coat collar. In Malick Sidibe’s photographs, the dance halls and social clubs of mid-’60s West Africa have come alive, captured with a strangely seductive blend of artistry, portraiture and straight social documentation.

Born in 1936 in Mali, Sidibe opened Studio Malick in 1958, in the capital city of Bamako, a location from which he still works.

Over the years, he has produced everything from family portraits to architectural photographs. His images of Bamako’s ‘60s and early-’70s youth culture have made an indelible mark in the art world, gaining him critical acclaim and exhibition around the globe. For the Patrick Painter Gallery in Bergamot Station, actor Matt Dillon has hand-picked some of Sidibe’s best work from this period, a group of stunning black-and-white images taken at the parties and gatherings indicative of Mali’s newly burgeoning nightlife.

“I’ve never curated a show before, but I’ve always had a strong interest in art,” Dillon says of the show, which runs through Aug. 24. “I knew Sidibe photos and loved them. There was something so spirited and energetic about these images, so when I was asked to do this, I jumped.”

Sidibe’s photos are alluring because they capture not only the remarkable universality of the ‘60s experience but also the exuberance of a country in the throes of reinvention. Having gained its independence from France in 1960, Mali was moving through a remarkable political transformation that coincided with the seduction of its young by exported American pop culture. Soul, rock and early R&B; had crossed the seas. James Brown and platforms, Jimi Hendrix and bell-bottoms had arrived in West Africa.

In Sidibe’s photos, music is a constant. Its presence is felt everywhere, in the movements of the dancers, in the wild grins of partygoers, in the coy glance of a girl waiting to be asked onto the floor. In one image, a speaker leans half-hidden in a palm tree. In another, a battered record player sits next to stack of treasured LPs.

For Dillon, an audiophile, music became the show’s thematic thread. “The emphasis is less on the portraiture and more on the parties,” Dillon explains, “and music was such a part of that world. The thing I really loved was there was a real innocence in their love of music as well. It was without prejudice. You see one girl holding up a James Brown album, you see Afro-Cuban LPs in the background, you see a kid standing in a hat that says Elvis Presley across the brim, and it’s all given the same weight. They loved music without the hang-ups that American kids might have had at the time.” That innocence can be seen in the easy trust between Sidibe and his subjects. There is a relaxed, open feel to the photos, making it obvious he was not only a voyeur but a participant as well. His presence was part of the game.

“I was the artist and people trusted me,” Sidibe said of his work in a 1998 interview with Andre Magnin, curator for the Contemporary African Art Collection, housed in Geneva. “This just made the photos all the better. I was always on the lookout for a photo opportunity, a light-hearted moment, an original attitude or some guy who was really funny.”

“When he came around, they came alive,” Dillon says. “There’s so much soul and spirit in those pictures and in those faces.... A director once told me that the greatest location of all was the human face, and I think Sidibe knew that.”

Patrick Painter Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave. Santa Monica, (310) 264-5988. Through Aug. 24.