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The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
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Seydou Keïta (Malian, 1921(?)–2001)
Untitled [Olympia], 1956–57, print 1996
Gelatin silver print; 15 3/8 x 21 3/4 in. (39.1 x 55.2 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Anonymous Gift, 1997 (1997.267)
Read about this artist.
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The pensive subject of the portrait positioned at a sloping diagonal clad in a voluminous textile of a contrasting floral print appears to levitate suspended between two intersecting realms. This image eloquently bridges the artificial distinction between "tradition" and "modernity" through the blending of the classical strip woven cloth as a dominant presence and the industrially printed cloth worn by the protagonist. On one level, Keïta achieves a powerful formal tension by juxtaposing the bold checkerboard expanse of a Bamana cover blanket (kosso walani) over a bamboo bed, or tara, against the backdrop of European damask embossed with a dense pattern of florid arabesques. Among the most common textiles woven by Bamana weavers, in the past black-and-white kosso walani were most closely identified with the Segou region. On another level, the selection of the Bamana blanket transports the Malian viewer beyond Keïta's studio setting and evokes a domestic interior into which an eligible unmarried woman of leisure invites her suitor.This reclining pose was among the most popular for female clients.
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