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The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
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Malick Sidibé; (Malian, b.1936)
Untitled [Portrait of a Woman Standing Before a Striped Background], 1979
Gelatin silver print; 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. (14 x 8.9 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Nancy Lane Gift, 2003 (2003.160)
Read about this artist.
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The formal tension that is the focus of these images is the layering of the striped cloth of the studio backdrop with those worn by the subjects. The design of the woman's wax print that unfolds in vertical columns the length of her skirt echoes and contrasts with the controlled structure of her environment. The fabric of the man's shirt is subdivided into rectangles that when silhouetted against these same stripes are reminiscent of the units of floating designs that West African weavers may introduce into their woven strips.
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