Malick Sidibe was born into a Peul family in a small village of Mali. He graduated from school in I952. After being noticed for his talent as a draftsman, he was admitted to the School of Sudanese Craftsmen in Bamako from which he graduated in I955.

He decorated the "Photo Service" store of Gerard Guillat, also known as "Gégé la Pellicule", who offered him a job as his apprentice. That's how he got started in photography in 1956. He opened the "Studio Malick" in I958 in the centre of Bamako in Bagadadji, on 30th Street, Corner I9, where he still prints his portraits today and repairs cameras. The wildness of the 1950's, and the coming of independence, gave birth to a new generation of photographers who were totally involved in the cultural and social life that they recorded. Malick Sidibe, was a pivotal character in all this, highly appreciated by young people, he was present at all the soirees where the young, organized in clubs, learned the new dances coming from Europe and Cuba, and dressed elegantly in Western clothes. In I957 he was the only reporter in Bamako who covered all the events, festivities and surprise-parties. On Saturdays these parties lasted until dawn and continued on Sunday on the banks the river Niger. This on-the-spot coverage provided simple pictures, full of truth and complicity. From his photos an insouciance and spontaneity emerges: he captured the playful partying, full of laughter and life. He quit this activity in 1978, but continued his studio photography and repairing cameras. When his work gained an international reputation, new horizons opened up for him. People flock to his studio, magazines commission photo-reports, and he is invited almost everywhere in the world for exhibitions and conferences.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2004 – 2005
Studio Malick
La Filature, Scène National
Mulhouse - France

2004
Malick Sidibé
Fifty One Fine Art Photography
Antwerp, Belgium.

2003
Malick Sidibé – 2003 Hasselblad Award Winner
Hasselblad Center
Göteborg Museum of Art
Gothenburg, Sweden

2003
Malick Sidibé
Hackelbury Fine Art Ltd.
London, Great Britain

2003
Malick Sidibé
Musée Pincé
Angers, France.

2003
Malick Sidibé
Conrad Gallery
Düsseldorf Dusseldorf, Germany.

2003
Malick Sidibé
Kennedy Boesky Photographs
New York, NY, USA.

2003
Studio Malick
Jack Shainman Gallery
New York, NY, USA.

2001 - 2003
You look beautiful like that : The Portrait of Photographs
of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé

• Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown
  Massachusetts, MA, USA.
• National Portrait Gallery
  London, Great Britain.
• Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach
  FL, USA.
• UCLA Hammer Museum, University of California
  Los Angeles, CA, USA.
• Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums
  Cambridge, MA, USA.

2002
Malick Sidibé
Patrick Painter, Inc
Los Angeles, CA, USA.

2001
Malick Sidibe & Seydou Keita
"You look beautiful like that"
Harvard University Art Museums.
Cambridge, United States.
UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

2001
Malick Sidibe
Stedelijk Museum.
Amsterdam, Holland.

2001
I Ka Nyi Tan. Malick Sidibe, Seydou Keita fotografi a Bamako.
Roma, Italy.

2000
Malick Sidibe
Contemporary Art Center.
Geneva, Switzerland.

2000
Club of Bamako.
Work Installations : Emile Guebehi, Koffi Kouakou, Coulibaly Siaka.
Rice University Art Gallery.
Houston, United States.

1999
Malick Sidibe
The Clubs of Bamako
Deitch Projects.
New York, United States.

1999
Malick Sidibe
Australian Center for Photography.
Sydney, Australia.

1999
Malick Sidibe
Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, United States.

1997
Malick Sidibé. Photografie 1962-1976." Clubs and Twist und Chats Sauvages".
IFA -Stuttgart, Germany.

1995
Malick Sidibé
Cartier Fondation for Contemporary Art.
Paris, France.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005
Arts of Africa
Grimaldi Forum
Monaco - France

2005
African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Museum of Fine Art Houston
Houston - USA

2004
Fifty One celebrates four years
Fifty One Fine Art Photography
Antwerp - Belgium

2004
Je m’installe aux abattoirs
La collection d’art contemporain d’agnès b.
Les Abattoirs
Toulouse - France

2004
Joy of Life
Malick Sidibé and Ojeikere,
Two Photographers from Africa
Hara Museum
Tokyo - Japan

2004 (travelling exhibition)
Village Global : Les Années 60

• 02/10/03 – 18/01/04
  Musée des Beaux-Arts
  Montreal, Canada
• 19/02/04 – 23/05/04
  Dallas Museum of Art
  Dallas, USA

2003
Correspondances Afriques
Iwalewa-Haus
Afrikanzentrum der Universität Bayreuth
Bayreuth - Allemagne

2003
Les ateliers des désirs
Philip Kwame Apagya, Seydou Keïta & Malick Sidibé
Centre Culturel Français Freiburg
Freiburg, Germany

2003
Mali, photographies et textiles contemporains
mu.dac, Musée de designe et d’arts appliqués contemporain
Lausanne - Switzerland

2003
Västafrikansk porträttfotografi
Seydou Keïta / Malick Sidibé / Samuel Fosso

• Norsk museum for fotografi - Preus fotomuseum, Horten, Norway
• Bildens Hus
  Sundsvall, Sweden
• Xposeptember Foto Festival 2002
  Stockholm, Sweden.

• P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Museum
  of Modern Art.
  New York, NY, USA.
• Museum of Contemporary Art.
  Chicago, IL, USA.
• House of World Cultures in the
  Martin-Gropius-Bau.
  Berlin, Germany.
• Museum Villa Stuck
  Munich, Germany.

1999
Malick Sidibe
Istanbul Biennal.
Istanbul, Turkey.

1999
Photo Espana 99
Madrid, Spain.

1997
In/ sight : African Photographers, 1940 to the present.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
New York, United States.

1994
Bamako 1st Meeting for African Photography.
Bamako, Mali.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2005
African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2003
Go Johnny Go : Die E-Gitarre-Kunst und Mythos
Exhibition Catalogue. Kunsthalle wien. Published by Steidl.

2003
Malick Sidibé Photographs
Exhibition Catalogue. Hasselblad Center. Published by Steidl

2003
Malick Sidibé
Exposition Catalogue. Angers, France. Editions Musées d’Angers

2002
Portraits of Pride, Samuel Fosso, Seydou Keïta and
Malick Sidibé
Exhibition catalogue. Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Editor Magnus af Petersens.

2001
"You look beautiful like that".
The portrait Photographs of Seydou Keita & Malick Sidibe.
Michelle Lamuniere @ Harvard University Art Museums.
Yale University Press.
Cambridge, New Haven, United States.

2001
"I Ka Nyi Tan"
Texts in Italian, 75 pages.
Malick Sidibe, Seydou Keita fotografi a Bamako.
Edition Castelvecchi Arte. Italy.

1998
Malick Sidibe, monography.
Edited by André Magnin.
Book in French or English.
Publisher SCALO.

1997
Malick Sidibe
Exhibition Catalogue, 40 pages, texts in German.
IFA -Gallery.
Stuttgart, Germany.

1996
In/ sight : African photographers, 1940 to the present.
Exhibition Catalogue, texts in English.
New York, United States.

1995
Malick Sidibe
Exhibition Catalogue, texts and book in French or English.
Cartier Fondation for Contemporary Art.

SELECTED EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

2005 African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell.

2003 Go Johnny Go : Die E-Gitarre-Kunst und Mythos
Exhibition Catalogue. Kunsthalle wien. Published by Steidl.

2003 Malick Sidibé Photographs
Exhibition Catalogue. Hasselblad Center. Published by Steidl

2003 Malick Sidibé
Exposition Catalogue. Angers, France. Editions Musées d’Angers

2002 Portraits of Pride, Samuel Fosso, Seydou Keïta and
Malick Sidibé
Exhibition catalogue. Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Editor Magnus af Petersens.