To honor the reopening of Metropolitan Museum’s The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing later in the month. The Throckmorton gallery is pleased to announce a collaborative exhibition of historical African sculpture and vintage photographs opening May 17th. Working closely with New York African art dealer Amyas Naegele, a central figure in the New York tribal world for over 30 years, Throckmorton Gallery will be presenting selected sculpture with stellar provenance from all corners of the continent. Among the artworks being offered will be an extraordinary and beautiful hawk mask from the estate collection of New York collector Thomas Wheelock as well as masks and statuary formerly owned by Merton D. Simpson, Philip Pearstein, Noble Endicott, the Bereiss family, Hélène Leloup and others. To accompany the sculpture, Throckmorton will present vintage black and white photographs by seminal Malian photographer Malick Sidibé. Sidibé got his start as a studio photographer in the final years of French colonial rule. In the late 1950’s, to document the emergence of a new nation, he stepped out of the shadows, initially focusing on the lively youth culture of the capital Bamako. Not to be contained, Sidibé broadened his vision to capture the spurt of national pride, celebration and optimism that came with new-found freedoms that came with independence in 1960. Sidibé captured it all: he took his camera to marriages, sporting events, nightclubs, and concerts. He also composed formal portraits. Sidibé’s photographs over the next 20 plus years reflect a loosening of social norms, and the relaxed mixing of the traditional and the modern, in everything from clothes to hairstyles and the very presentation of personhood. The images are all field-collected original works, not reissued prints from old negatives. Like the traditional sculptures they are presented with, they bear the mark of time and authenticity. The show also celebrates the 35 years of collegiality between Spencer Throckmorton and Amyas Naegele. In 1990 Spencer was already a seasoned dealer of ancient and ethnic art while Amyas was just starting his career after years of travel in Africa. Initially, Spencer’s go-to base-maker, Amyas quickly expanded his repertoire by trading exclusively in African art. He is among the relative few in the field who has traveled intrepidly across the continent, field collected and studied the ways and means of traditional carvers in person. He has been awarded the honor of appraising works in many notable public and private collections including for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of African Art.