A groundbreaking exhibition explores photography’s role in shaping Pan-African identity, solidarity, and political thought

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has announced a landmark exhibition titled Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, opening December 14, 2025, and running through July 25, 2026. This focused presentation explores the transformative power of photographic portraiture in articulating Pan-African subjectivity and political imagination—both on the African continent and across its diaspora.

Organised by Oluremi C. Onabanjo, The Peter Schub Curator in the Department of Photography, with Chiara M. Mannarino, Curatorial Assistant, the exhibition draws inspiration from foundational texts such as V. Y. Mudimbe’s The Idea of Africa (1994) and Robin D. G. Kelley’s Africa Speaks, America Answers (2012). At its core, the show considers how portrait photography has served not only as a visual record, but as a tool for imagining new futures, forging solidarity, and expressing cultural autonomy.

A Living Archive of Pan-African Imagination

Ideas of Africa is the third major MoMA exhibition built around the museum’s significant 2019 acquisition of modern and contemporary African art from collector Jean Pigozzi. It brings together key works from that gift alongside recent acquisitions and critical loans, showcasing how photography became a medium through which ideas of African identity, resistance, and collectivity were visualised and circulated globally.

Spanning several generations and geographies, the exhibition foregrounds the "golden age" of studio photography in Africa with seminal works by Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Jean Depara, Sanlé Sory, and Ambroise Ngaimoko—artists whose portraits captured the elegance, complexity, and aspirations of everyday life in West and Central Africa during the mid-20th century.

Beyond the continent, the exhibition extends into the diaspora through the lens of photographers like James Barnor and Kwame Brathwaite, who documented vibrant Black communities in the United States, the Caribbean, and the UK. Their work reflects a transatlantic dialogue of Pan-African consciousness—one that emphasized shared histories, pride, and resistance in the face of colonial and racial structures.

Contemporary Continuities and New Visions

While rooted in historical photography, Ideas of Africa also bridges to the present through the work of contemporary artists such as Samuel Fosso, Silvia Rosi, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. These artists challenge, remix, and extend the legacy of portraiture, using photography and mixed media to explore lineage, diaspora, and the shifting boundaries of African identity.

The exhibition also features materials from the archive of Air Afrique, a pan-African artist collective and experimental platform, offering a look at how newer generations continue to reinterpret the aesthetics and politics of Pan-Africanism.

In reflecting on the exhibition’s wider significance, curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo notes:

“As we continue to witness transformative shifts in the global geopolitical order, it is instructive to revisit a moment in history that saw the disintegration of colonial territories and the formation of transnational solidarity across the African continent and diaspora. This exhibition locates dazzling modes of Pan-African possibility in images made by inventive photographers who registered and beckoned in new worlds.”

Programs, Publications, and Public Engagement

Complementing the exhibition is a dedicated reading room, featuring a curated selection of historical and contemporary photobooks and print materials that highlight how photography was distributed and debated in the decolonial era.

A richly illustrated exhibition catalogue will accompany the show, with a lead essay by Onabanjo, and contributions by poet Momtaza Mehri, film critic Yasmina Price, and scholars including Brent Hayes Edwards and V. Y. Mudimbe. The publication will offer critical context for understanding the intersection of image-making, identity, and political imagination across Africa and its diaspora.

Ahead of the exhibition's opening, MoMA's Department of Research Programs will host Reimagining Liberation: An Open Study Session on October 8, 2024—a public forum designed to introduce key exhibition themes and foster dialogue around photography’s role in political thought and cultural memory.

Support and Acknowledgements

Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination is made possible through generous leadership support from the Jon Stryker Endowment Fund, The International Council of MoMA, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, and The Black Arts Council of MoMA, among others.

A Timely Reflection on the Power of Images

At a time of renewed global questioning around identity, memory, and belonging, Ideas of Africa offers a timely reflection on how photographic portraits can function not just as records of the past, but as blueprints for future possibility. In spotlighting artists who shaped—and are still shaping—what it means to imagine Africa, the exhibition affirms the enduring power of the image to inspire dialogue, solidarity, and change.