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Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, titans of the American music scene, have orchestrated a monumental exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, starting February 6, showcasing seminal works from the African-American community and the broader Black diaspora. The exhibition, aptly named Giants, not only celebrates the magnitude of the artworks presented but also pays homage to the influential figures upon whose achievements Keys and Beatz have built their illustrious careers.
Alicia Keys, renowned for her Grammy award-winning hits such as Fallin’ and Empire State of Mind, alongside Jay-Z, articulates the exhibition’s intent: to illuminate the “giants” whose legacies continue to inspire.
Central to the exhibition are works by New York cultural luminary Jean-Michel Basquiat, photographer Malik Sidibe, and Gordon Parks, who poignantly captured the era of segregation and the civil rights movement in America. The exhibition also spotlights living artists, including Kehinde Wiley, celebrated for his presidential portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama and his innovative reinterpretation of classical Western art with African subjects. Additionally, Giants features Botswanan artist Meleko Mokgosi’s Bread, Butter, and Power, a lifelike fresco that delves into the dynamics of power and gender in Africa.
Photographic chronicles of the Black is Beautiful movement by the late Kwame Brathwaite and Jamel Shabazz’s documentation of hip-hop’s evolution in New York also find their place in this curated space. Swizz Beatz, a Bronx native, acclaimed DJ, and producer who propelled rapper DMX to fame, began collecting some of the artwork featured in Giants early in his career, with a focus on supporting emerging Black artists who have since gained recognition.
The exhibition also highlights the work of Ernie Barnes, a former American football player turned painter, whose piece Sugar Shack achieved a record $15.2 million at an auction in 2022, significantly surpassing its estimated value. Swizz Beatz, in a promotional video, expressed the deliberate choice to focus on artists of color: “We collect artists from all over the world. The reason why we doubled down on artists of color, black and brown, is because our own community wasn’t collecting these giants.”
Giants serves as a testament to the evolving landscape of museum audiences, aiming for greater diversity and inclusivity. Kimberli Gant, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, reflects on the shift towards recognizing the complexity of global narratives, moving beyond Eurocentric perspectives that have historically dominated art history and museum collections. This endeavor aligns with broader efforts to embrace a more nuanced understanding of cultural heritage and artistic expression.
As Giants opens to the public, it coincides with the conclusion of a retrospective dedicated to filmmaker Spike Lee, further highlighting the interconnectedness of Black creative endeavors across different media at the Brooklyn Museum.
