The High Museum of Art is now the exclusive venue in the Southeastern United States to present “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” (Sept. 13, 2024-Jan. 19, 2025), the first major exhibition of the world-class art collection owned by musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys.
I was invited to a special media tour of the exhibit before open night.
“Giants” debuted at the Brooklyn Museum in February of this year; it features a
focused selection from the couple’s holdings, spotlighting works by multigenerational Black diasporic artists, from 20th century legends such as Nick Cave, Lorna Simpson and Barkley L. Hendricks, to artists of a younger generation including Deana Lawson, Amy Sherald and Ebony G. Patterson, who are expanding the legacies of those who came before them.
“We are honored to present these extraordinary artworks from the Deans’ unparalleled
collection, which features some of the most important artists of the 20th and 21st centuries,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “Many of these artists are featured in the High’s collection, and they also include two previous recipients of our David C. Driskell Prize: Ebony G. Patterson and Amy Sherald. So, it’s fitting for us to bring this exhibition to Atlanta.”
on the world around them. The artists on view address a range of issues Black people have faced throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Simpson’s “Tense” (1991) considers Black women’s self-representation within an environment where others often define that
representation. Cave’s textured sculptures examine how Black people, particularly men, must assume costumes to conceal and protect themselves against violence. Other artists such as Jerome Lagarrigue and Henry Taylor present issues of protest and lack of visibility due to homelessness.
Works on view also celebrate Blackness and champion the beauty, resilience, distinctiveness, connection and joyousness within communities across the globe. Over a dozen photographs by Jamel Shabazz honor the everyday people walking the streets of New York from the 1980s to the present. Defying stereotypical depictions of his country by the West, Hassan Hajjaj captures Morocco’s female henna artists in one photograph on view. Sherald’s large-scale diptych portrays Baltimore, Maryland, dirt bike culture and the joyful freedom that comes with riding— a passion Swizz shares. The “Giant Presence” section of the exhibition offers an impressive finale of monumental artworks. Nina Chanel Abney’s “Catfish” (2017) is a visual provocation about sexual and financial exchange between individuals in a colorful, almost cartoonish, setting. Paintings by Titus Kaphar and Meleko Mokgosi also use scale to emphasize powerful themes that resonate across history.
fabric collage on paper, The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia
Keys. © 2023 Derrick Adams Studio. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com
inkjet print, The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © 2023
Derrick Adams Studio. Photo by Glenn Steigelman
pigmented inkjet print, The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia
Keys. © 2023 Derrick Adams Studio. Photo by Glenn Steigelman
The Dean Collection, courtesy of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys. © Esther Mahlangu.
Photo by Glenn Steigelman.
Grab your tickets to view “Giants” here!
