The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

Twenty-four, serrated-edged, black-and-white rectangular photos depicting people with medium-dark to dark skin tones at a party. They mostly wear suits and dresses, the dresses with slim silhouettes. In some photos people appear to dance, in some they hold bottles. Most of the photos are vertically oriented, with people posed mostly in pairs, but four horizontally oriented photos photograph people in larger groups.

Les Franquis

1966

Malick Sidibé

(Malian, 1936–2016)
Mali
Portfolio of 24 gelatin silver prints
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2022.248
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Malick Sidibé would photograph as many as five parties each weekend.

Description

For each party, Malick Sidibé would make these small prints which he displayed in his shop window the next day, encouraging partygoers to order enlargements. The images reveal the fashionable mix of Western and African styles worn to the social clubs in the newly independent nation of Mali. With independence came new social freedoms for young people, who danced the nights away to the twist, rock and roll, and Afro-Cuban music.
  • The 1966 photographic snapshots adhered to the pink paper have a distinctive decorative border, known as a “deckle edge.” This mechanically cut edge references and derives its name from the natural edges in handmade paper formed by the deckle component of the paper mold. Photographic paper stock from the 1940s to early 1970s could be purchased pretrimmed and various methods—from hand cutting with paper cutters to mass production die cutters—were used to create a range of patterns. Characteristics of certain deckle edge patterns may provide greater insight into the time frame of a photograph, the method employed to cut the perimeter, and the technological expertise of the place of printing. The perceived value in the natural edge is the notion that it is a one-of-a-kind decorative element of the overall work. Comparatively, the intentional deckle edge on these snapshots separates them from those that are conventionally trimmed.
  • ?-2022
    (Throckmorton Fine Art, New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    December 5, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Les Franquis|url=false|author=Malick Sidibé|year=1966|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.248