Veteran Mali photographer Malick Sidibe' is to become the first African artist to receive a career achievement award from the prestigious venice Biennale arts fest.
Announcing the award on Friday, Biennale artistic director Robert Storr said the 72-year-old Sidibe', noted for piercing 1960s black-and-white street portraits that capture his country's popular and youth culture, was "the undisputed master among photographers of his generation".
A wealth of shows over the past decades, Storr said, have "highlighted without a shadow of a doubt that no artist has been more active than Malick Sidibe' in increasing the importance of photography on the continent...and refining our knowledge of the tones and transformations which have marked African culture from the mid-20th century to the start of the 21st".
Storr saluted Sidibe', who has lived and worked in the Malian capital Bamako all his life, as the "portraitist par excellence of his city and country".
Likening the Mali master to the great German photographer August Sandler, Storr said "he has captured the faces of countless individuals and in so doing has succeeded in registering the facets of a rapidly changing society".
Storr also hailed Sidibe's "profound interest in the Mali musical scene".
When he comes to collect his award on June 10, Sidibe' will perform with a wide range of musicians and singer-songwriters who have written pieces in Mali's many languages in a bid to fight the spread of AIDS in their country and Africa.
'Les Africains Chantent Contre Le Sida' (Africans Sing Against AIDS) is one of the most eagerly awaited events at this year's Biennale, which will feature a record number of countries including, for the first time, Lebanon, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan.
Sidibe' has had major shows in Britain, France, America, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Italy.
In 2003 he received the coveted Hasselblad Award, whose roll of honour includes Henri Cartier-Bresson, Richard Avedon, Ansel Adams and Sebastiano Salgado.
