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172 - Samuel FOSSO (Cameroon, Kumba, born 1962) Martin Luther King…
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Estimate €10,000 - €20,000
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Description
Samuel FOSSO (Cameroon, Kumba, born 1962) Martin Luther King Speech African Spirits series, 2008 Laser-exposed silver print, later edition. Numbered 5 on 5. Image: 101.6 × 76 cm - Sheet: 127 × 95 cm Unframed (rolled) *** Laser exposed silver print, printed later, numbered 5/5, image: 40 × 29⅞ in., sheet: 50 × 37⅜ in. Executed in 2008. Certificate of authenticity from Jean-Marc Patras Provenance Acquired at Sotheby's, London, 31 March 2021, no. 30. Comparable work : A print from this series is in the Museum of Modern Art, New York (no. 903.2016.2) Born in Cameroon to Nigerian parents, Samuel Fosso grew up in the Central African Republic, where he fled the civil war in Biafra. An apprentice photographer from the age of twelve, he opened his own studio in Bangui in 1975 and began photographing himself to finish his rolls of film - self-portraits initially sent to his grandmother, which would become the core of his practice. In these performative images, he dons costumes and attributes borrowed from his icons, exploring the intersections of gender, identity and post-colonial Africa. Unknown outside Bangui until 1993, when photographer Bernard Deschamps discovered his work and included it in the first Rencontres de Bamako, he quickly established himself as one of the leading figures in contemporary African photography. His self-portraits are included in the collections of the Tate Modern, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac and the MoMA in New York. In 2008, he created African Spirits, his most famous series: thirteen black and white self-portraits in which he portrays key figures in pan-Africanism and the civil rights movement - Angela Davis, Patrice Lumumba, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. Slipping into their clothes and recreating their iconic poses, Fosso summons up their memory while questioning the notion of identity. "I had to pay homage to those who made me free.
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About the sale Arab, African & Indian Modernities
Auction location
Auction time 06/18/2026 at 2:30 PM
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