Artist
Samuel Fosso(Cameroonian, born 1962)Cameroonian, born 1962
CultureCameroonian
Titles
- Self-Portrait (as Liberated American Woman of the '70s)
- La Femme américaine libérée des années 70
Date1997, printed 2003
PlaceCameroon, Africa
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 34 3/16 × 33 15/16 in. (86.9 × 86.2 cm)
Sheet: 41 1/2 × 40 in. (105.4 × 101.6 cm)
Frame: 45 × 45 × 1 1/2 in. (114.3 × 114.3 × 3.8 cm)
Sheet: 41 1/2 × 40 in. (105.4 × 101.6 cm)
Frame: 45 × 45 × 1 1/2 in. (114.3 × 114.3 × 3.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha
Object number2004.809
Non exposé
Explore Further
Department
PhotographyObject Type
making self portraits to send as evidence of his wellbeing to his grandmother
in Nigeria, who he left behind when he fled Nigeria in 1972. He opened his
first photography studio in Cameroon at the age of 13, after an apprenticeship
with a Nigerian photographer who was one of two studio owners in the country.
Fosso controls every aspect of each portrait,
including costumes, props, background, and poses. ‘‘Taking pictures is for me a
way of liberating myself from the sufferings of childhood, from illness, war,
everything. I always believed that my life would be pushed aside by other
people’s. But photography has given me a second life. It’s made all lives
possible for me.”
Fosso is also fascinated with fashion and the
ways it can be used to temporarily transform identity. The image here
is from the Tati series, a body of
work he made when the Parisian department store of the same name invited him to
set up a studio in Paris, using costumes and make up from the store.
Provenance[Jack Shainman Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2004.
Exhibition History"Tapping Currents: Contemporary African Art and the Diaspora," The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, November 17,2007–April 13, 2008.
"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 21–May 9, 2010.
"Afro-Atlantic Histories," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 24, 2021–January 17, 2022; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., April 10–July 17, 2022. (OL.1505)
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.
Samuel Gassman
2023
Tiara: Iron, platinum, enamel on copper, 19th century neoclassical helmet shell cameos, pink conch shell cameo, 19th century malachite cameo, 19th century hard stone cameo, shell, ebony, rose quartz, citrine, opal, garnet, sea glass, aquamarine, amethyst, gold, natural pearls, tigers eye, 19th century cut steel, silk, cotton velvet, and silk floss
Box: Archival foam core, Magic Smooth resin, cotton gauze, silk, cotton velvet, silver, metallic bullion ribbon, paper, cotton damask c. 1900, silk damask c. 1850, 18th century linen, cotton thread, and silk floss
2024.284.A,.B
Samuel Blyth
c. 1776
Mezzotint with watercolor and gouache on laid paper
B.99.7