What do you think?
Rate this book
Youssef Nabil: Sleep in My Arms
New, signed by the artist.
88 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
3 people want to read
About the author
Simon Njami
48 books6 followersSimon Njami is a writer and an independent curator, lecturer, art critic and essayist.
He has published his first novel "Cercueil et Cie" in 1985, followed by "Les Enfants de la Cité" in 1987, "Les Clandestins" and "African Gigolo" in 1989, notably. He wrote two biographies, about James Baldwin and Léopold Sédar Senghor, several short texts, scripts for cinema and documentary films.
Njami is the co-founder of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art, and he was Visiting Professor at UCSD (University of San Diego California).
After conceiving the Ethnicolor Festival in Paris in 1987, he curated many international exhibitions being among the first ones to think and show African contemporary artists work on international stages. He has served as Artistic Director of Bamako Encounters, the African Photography Biennale, from 2001 to 2007. Njami is the curator of "Africa Remix", showed in Düsseldorf (Museum Kunst Palast), London (Hayward Gallery), Paris (Centre Pompidou), Tokyo (Mori Museum), Stockholm (Moderna Museet) and Johannesburg (Johannesburg Art Gallery), from 2004 to 2007. He co-curated the first African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He curated the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008, and was the Artistic Director of Luanda Triennale (2010), Picha (Lumumbashi Biennale – 2010), SUD (Douala Triennale – 2010), among others exhibitions and international art events.
The exhibition "The Divine Comedy – Heaven, Hell, Purgatory by Contemporary African Artists" was shown at MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main) from 21 March to 27 July 2014, The SCAD Museum of Art from October 16 to January 25 and at Smithsonian Institution/ African Art Museum, Washington, from April 8th to November 1st, 2015.
Simon Njami is the Artistic Director of the Edition 12 of Dak'art, the Dakar Biennale, in Senegal from May, 3 to June, 2, 2016.
Invited to be part of numerous art and photography juries, such as the World Press Photo Contest, Njami is the Art Adviser of the Sindika Dokolo Foundation (Luanda) and the Artistic Director of the Donwahi Foundation (Abidjan) and member of the scientific boards of numerous museums.
He is currently directing "AtWork", an itinerant and digital project with Lettera27 Foundation, in partnership with Moleskine, as well as the Pan African Master Classes in Photography, project that he conceived with the Goethe Institut, and setting up the collection of contemporary art for the future Memorial Acte Museum in Guadeloupe.
He has published his first novel "Cercueil et Cie" in 1985, followed by "Les Enfants de la Cité" in 1987, "Les Clandestins" and "African Gigolo" in 1989, notably. He wrote two biographies, about James Baldwin and Léopold Sédar Senghor, several short texts, scripts for cinema and documentary films.
Njami is the co-founder of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art, and he was Visiting Professor at UCSD (University of San Diego California).
After conceiving the Ethnicolor Festival in Paris in 1987, he curated many international exhibitions being among the first ones to think and show African contemporary artists work on international stages. He has served as Artistic Director of Bamako Encounters, the African Photography Biennale, from 2001 to 2007. Njami is the curator of "Africa Remix", showed in Düsseldorf (Museum Kunst Palast), London (Hayward Gallery), Paris (Centre Pompidou), Tokyo (Mori Museum), Stockholm (Moderna Museet) and Johannesburg (Johannesburg Art Gallery), from 2004 to 2007. He co-curated the first African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale. He curated the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008, and was the Artistic Director of Luanda Triennale (2010), Picha (Lumumbashi Biennale – 2010), SUD (Douala Triennale – 2010), among others exhibitions and international art events.
The exhibition "The Divine Comedy – Heaven, Hell, Purgatory by Contemporary African Artists" was shown at MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main) from 21 March to 27 July 2014, The SCAD Museum of Art from October 16 to January 25 and at Smithsonian Institution/ African Art Museum, Washington, from April 8th to November 1st, 2015.
Simon Njami is the Artistic Director of the Edition 12 of Dak'art, the Dakar Biennale, in Senegal from May, 3 to June, 2, 2016.
Invited to be part of numerous art and photography juries, such as the World Press Photo Contest, Njami is the Art Adviser of the Sindika Dokolo Foundation (Luanda) and the Artistic Director of the Donwahi Foundation (Abidjan) and member of the scientific boards of numerous museums.
He is currently directing "AtWork", an itinerant and digital project with Lettera27 Foundation, in partnership with Moleskine, as well as the Pan African Master Classes in Photography, project that he conceived with the Goethe Institut, and setting up the collection of contemporary art for the future Memorial Acte Museum in Guadeloupe.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 28, 2010
'To sleep, perchance to dream....'
Youssef Nabil, born in Cairo in 1972, has become an important figure in the world of photographic art. Technically speaking his fantasy imbued works are hand colored gelatin silver prints, an old technique that focused on intensive input form the photographer once the image had been captured. In addition to his portraits of famous personalities, an aspect of his output he learned from the gifted photographer Van Leo, he ha created many images that are self-portraits and staged pseudo realities.
In this very beautiful volume of his work Nabil has focused on men at the hour of sleep, either alone or in tangent positions, an aura of erotica hovers above each image. Yet Nabil avoids the 'in your face' imagery so prevalent in other photographers of the male books. It may be the softness of the hand coloring, or the fact that the artist has decided on the poses for the photographs, but these images are simply men at rest - and perhaps there is more the story of each photo, but Nabil is known for allowing the audience to finish the tale he has staged. The viewer can be easily convinced that these images are stills form old movies - that is the kid of arrested imagery to be found in each work. As is mentioned in context with this publication, 'In this first monograph on his work, Youssef Nabil photographs young men in intimate situations, asleep or on the threshold of sleep, interspersed with self-portraits, and sets up dreamlike moments that are imbued with a brooding sexuality, exploring the interior and exterior worlds of drama, beauty, glamour, sexuality and identity. SLEEP IN MY ARMS leaves the viewer eager for more of this fine artist's work.
Grady Harp
Youssef Nabil, born in Cairo in 1972, has become an important figure in the world of photographic art. Technically speaking his fantasy imbued works are hand colored gelatin silver prints, an old technique that focused on intensive input form the photographer once the image had been captured. In addition to his portraits of famous personalities, an aspect of his output he learned from the gifted photographer Van Leo, he ha created many images that are self-portraits and staged pseudo realities.
In this very beautiful volume of his work Nabil has focused on men at the hour of sleep, either alone or in tangent positions, an aura of erotica hovers above each image. Yet Nabil avoids the 'in your face' imagery so prevalent in other photographers of the male books. It may be the softness of the hand coloring, or the fact that the artist has decided on the poses for the photographs, but these images are simply men at rest - and perhaps there is more the story of each photo, but Nabil is known for allowing the audience to finish the tale he has staged. The viewer can be easily convinced that these images are stills form old movies - that is the kid of arrested imagery to be found in each work. As is mentioned in context with this publication, 'In this first monograph on his work, Youssef Nabil photographs young men in intimate situations, asleep or on the threshold of sleep, interspersed with self-portraits, and sets up dreamlike moments that are imbued with a brooding sexuality, exploring the interior and exterior worlds of drama, beauty, glamour, sexuality and identity. SLEEP IN MY ARMS leaves the viewer eager for more of this fine artist's work.
Grady Harp
Displaying 1 of 1 review