Malick Sidibe and Emile Guebehi at Jack Shainman

This exhibition of photographs by Malick Sidibe and figural sculptures by Emile Guebehi allowed for a consideration of two African artists, contemporaries in age, in the context of the postcolonial experience of identity, individuality, self-image, beauty and sexuality. Three hundred of Sidibe's lovely black-and-white photographs were on view, all tonally nuanced gelatin silver prints of different sizes and formats, and ranging in date from 1956 to 2003. They were arranged in four big circular clusters on the walls of the gallery--an effective way of displaying such a very large selection. Many were framed by a thin strip of light brown tape enclosing the protective glass, which was painted with floral borders in red, yellow, dark green and brown. It made for a colorful presentation, especially in the company of Guebehi's polychrome statues, life-size figures that stood directly on the floor, thereby inhabiting our realm.

Sidibe (b. 1935) is a highly accomplished portrait photographer who opened his Studio Malick in Bamako, Mali, in 1962. Since the late '90s, he has achieved increasing international recognition. The subjects in his portraits are shown standing, sitting or reclining, full- or bust-length, alone or in groups. These people make eye contact with us or look away, often assuming poses and facial expressions found in earlier traditions of portraiture. What makes Sidibe's photographs so riveting, besides their technical and formal accomplishment, are the ways in which the sitters combine Western and indigenous styles, sporting clothes of pattern-rich fabric and the various fashionable hairstyles of their day. Highly self-aware, they want to look their very best--to be seen as they see themselves. Sidibe is the Nadar of his people.

In a recent series, Sidibe has photographed women turned away from the viewer with their bare backs exposed to view. The sitters do not wish to be identified, for the images are considered to be risque--an eroticism that, in the exhibition, provided a bridge to Guebehi's sculptures of nude or scantily clad women, embodying an African canon of beauty. Guebehi (b. 1937) works in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast. His extraordinarily sensual and realistic femmes fatales, made of coconut wood and putty, painted in glossy enamels and sometimes embellished with other mediums, stand in arrested poses making angular gestures (all untitled, 2004). The tradition of carving statues of highly voluptuous women goes back many centuries in West Africa; Guebehi updates the form in these contemporary females. One young girl wearing sandals and a tiny thong raises her right hand to her mouth as if she were surprised. A slightly older woman, also wearing just a thong, her arms hanging by her side, turns her head and advances her leg as if walking. The bodies are hard and immaculate. A comparable aura of individual perfection is achieved in Sidibe's photographs.

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