Important: By downloading images you are agreeing to the following permissions: Images are provided exclusively to the press, and only for purposes of publicity of The Museum of Modern Art's and MoMA PS1's current and upcoming exhibitions, programs, and news announcements. Permission to use images is granted only to the extent of the Museum's and MoMA PS1's ownership rights relating to those images—the responsibility for any additional permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the images. The images must be accompanied by the credit line and any copyright information as it appears above, and the party reproducing the images must not distort or mutilate the images.
Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination
December 14, 2025 – April 04, 2026
The Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art announces Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, an exhibition that will showcase how photographic portraits fuel ideas of Pan-African subjectivity and solidarity. On view from December 14, 2025, through April 4, 2026, the exhibition considers the transatlantic call and response that constructed Africa as a political idea, due to the “winds of decolonial change” that swept the African continent in tandem with the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Ideas of Africa is the third exhibition to be organized at The Museum of Modern Art in celebration of the 2019 gift of modern and contemporary African art from prolific collector Jean Pigozzi. The exhibition will feature core works from this gift, alongside a selection of recent acquisitions and key loans.
Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination is organized by Oluremi C. Onabanjo, The Peter Schub Curator, with the assistance of Chiara M. Mannarino, Curatorial Assistant, The Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography.
Press Kit
Images
Sanlé Sory. Traveller (Le Voyageur). 1970–85. Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Photography Fund, 1102.2018. © 2024 Sanlé Sory, courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York
Malick Sidibé. Regardez-moi! (Look at Me!). 1962. Gelatin silver print, printed 2003. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Jean Pigozzi, 400.2003. © 2024 Malick Sidibé. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Samuel Fosso. Untitled from the series African Spirits. 2008. Gelatin silver print. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Family of Man Fund, 903.2016.10. © 2024 Samuel Fosso
Kwame Brathwaite. Untitled (Sikolo with Carolee Prince Designs). 1964–68. Inkjet print, printed 2018. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Photography Fund, 228.2018. © 2024 Kwame Brathwaite
Silvia Rosi. Sposa Italiana Disintegrata. 2024. Inkjet print on Baryta paper. Courtesy of the artist and Collezione Maramotti.