Art Review: Ideas of Africa – Portraiture and Political Imagination
Imani Wiliford
Walking through the exhibition “Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination” at the Museum of Modern Art, visitors are immediately struck by the deliberate absence of traditional geographic boundaries and the rejection of Western colonialism as a framework for understanding African aesthetic production. Curated by Dr. Oluremi C. Onabanjo, the show brings together photographers from the West and Central African diaspora, spanning from the mid-century to the present day.
The title of the exhibition, borrowed from V. Y. Mudimbe’s book “The Idea of Africa” (1994), challenges Western theoretical constructions of the African continent. By focusing on portrait photography within the African diaspora, the exhibition seeks to foster Pan-African subjectivity and solidarity across time and geography.
One of the standout pieces in the exhibition is a broken triptych self-portrait by contemporary photographer Silvia Rosi titled “Sposa togolese disintegrata (Disintegrated Togolese Wife)” (2024). Rosi’s work reimagines memory, mobility, and personal history through fractured and fading grayscale images that challenge traditional notions of identity and representation.
Portraiture in the African diaspora is not just about capturing an individual’s likeness but also about spurring agency through physical activations and direct audience engagement. Works by renowned photographers such as Seydou Keïta, Ambroise Ngaimoko, Malick Sidibé, and Sanlé Sory showcase the diverse range of styles and subjects within the genre. Large-scale portraits from Samuel Fosso’s “African Spirits” (2008) series anchor the exhibition, highlighting the circulation of aesthetic ideas across the diaspora.
Dr. Onabanjo’s curatorial decisions challenge visitors to question accepted modes of categorization and prioritize cultural habitus as a way of existing in the world. By centering the African diaspora’s definition of itself, the exhibition highlights the political nature of portraiture in this context, inviting viewers to reimagine, physically activate, and engage with the images on display.
“Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination” is on view at the Museum of Modern Art through July 25. Curated by Oluremi C. Onabanjo with Chiara M. Mannarino, the exhibition offers a powerful testament to the ways in which the diaspora can assert its agency and shape its own narrative through the medium of photography.
