Portrait and Place: Photography in Senegal, 1840–1960 (2024) author Giulia Paoletti in conversation with Smooth Nzewi
Macky Kane, “Portrait of Mrs. Fatou Thioune, Saint Louis “(1939–1941), scan from gelatin negative, 3 1/2 x 5 inches (© Photo Macky KANE; image courtesy Estate of Macky Kane, all images courtesy Princeton University Press unless otherwise noted)
DPI Presents: Portrait And Place: Photography In Senegal, 1840–1960 (2024) Author Giulia Paoletti In Conversation With Smooth Nzewi
By way of introducing Portrait and Place: Photography in Senegal, 1840–1960 (2024), author and educator Giulia Paoletti puts forth the Senegalese cultural practice of xoymet (kho-e-mët). Paoletti translates the Wolof verb as “to let someone catch a glimpse of something intimate,” one of several interpretations of the expansive tradition. Here, she highlights the practice of decorating a bride’s room with a temporary archive of family history and borrowed photographic images."
This event will be held in the Riese Lounge at 721 Broadway on April 4, 2024 from 6pm-8:30pm.
RSVA REQUIRED. NO ENTRY WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT ISSUE ID.
About the Speakers:
Giulia Paoletti is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the histories of modern art and photography in Africa. Her book Portrait and Place: Photography in Senegal, 1840-1960 is forthcoming with Princeton University Press (March, 2024).
Her work has appeared in edited volumes and journals including Art History, Cahiers d'études africaines, the Metropolitan Museum Journal, Art in Translation, Journal of African History, and Troubles dans les collections and African Arts. Support for her research and writing include awards and fellowships from American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)/Getty; The Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA); the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.
She has taught and lectured at Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Kansas, the Barnes Foundation, and the University of Bologna. She has co-curated three exhibitions on historical and contemporary photography from Africa at the Metropolitan Museum, the Wallach Gallery and Dak’art Biennial OFF 2018. She is currently working with Dr. Sandrine Colard on the exhibition Picturing Fabrics: Textile and the Photographic Image.
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Smooth Nzewi joined The Museum of Modern Art in July 2019 as the first Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture. He leads the Africa group in the Museum’s Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP), MoMA’s internal research and exchange initiative devoted to art in a global context. His projects at MoMA include the exhibition Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound (2022).
Prior to joining MoMA, Nzewi was Curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2017–19), where he organized Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art (2020) and co-organized Ama: The Gathering Place (2019). Before Cleveland, Nzewi was Curator of African Art at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum (2013–17). There, his exhibitions included Inventory: New Works and Conversations around African Art (2016), and he spearheaded the acquisition of works by artists such as Kader Attia, Candice Brietz, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Julie Mehretu, and Obiora Udechukwu.
Nzewi holds a PhD in art history from Emory University. As an artist, he has exhibited internationally and is represented in public and private collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and Newark Museum, New Jersey.