Artwork Page for Portrait of Three Young Boys

Details / Information for Portrait of Three Young Boys

Portrait of Three Young Boys

1971, printed 2005

Malick Sidibé

(Malian, 1936–2016)
Culture
Mali
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Image: 39.1 x 29.8 cm (15 3/8 x 11 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2022.247
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Bell-bottomed pants are called “pattes d’éléphant” or “elephant paws” in French.

Description

Portrait of Three Young Boys is a study in fashion and facade. The boys sport fashionably wide trousers, which were the latest trend in Mali in 1971, and wild plaid and windowpane check fabrics. Their stances echo the poses they had seen on movie posters and in fashion and music magazines: legs apart, chests forward, expressions fierce. They are poseurs, hoping to impress with their masculinity and stylishness.
Black-and-white photograph depicting three young boys with medium-dark skin tones wearing bell-bottomed pants, stances wide and looking at us. The boy on our left wears a matching plaid button-up shirt and trousers. The central boy, shorter than the two flanking boys, wears a window-pane patterned suit. He leans back into the boy on our right who wears dark pants, a light shirt, its pattern washed out, and a baseball cap.

Portrait of Three Young Boys

1971, printed 2005

Malick Sidibé

(Malian, 1936–2016)
Mali

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