Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s Art Collection Goes on View at the Brooklyn Museum

Over 100 artworks on at the museum’s lofty Great Hall include those by contemporary superstars Mickalane Thomas, Nick Cave, Derrick Adams, Lorna Simpson, Tschabalala Self, and Nina Chanel Abney, as well as international powerhouses such as Esther Mahlangu, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Hassan Hajjaj. Another important thread is a group of African-born U.S.-based artists who respond to the experiences of the diaspora.

The sharply abstract paintings of Odili Donald Odita, for example, join Ebony G. Patterson’s mixed-media installation and the intricate figurations by Meleko Mokgosi and Toyin Ojih Odutola. Besides holding the largest private Gordon Parks collection, the couple is a supporter of the Gordon Parks Foundation which will honor them later this year in their annual gala. Fittingly, the show includes a generous portion of the late photographer’s black and white images, including a 1970 picture of boxer Muhammad Ali in Miami.

Cherrypicking 37 artists from the couple’s massive holdings for the show was a rarely-experienced joy for Gant—not to say, however, doing the justice to their over two-decade old passion did not also pose its own set of challenges. The curator prioritized paying attention the evolution in their collecting journey: “I recognized the fact that they also learned how to be collectors over time and established a more secured taste as well as an understanding of what they want to live with.”

While the collection heavily leans on artists from the African diaspora, Gant also realized the list indeed includes artists from various experiences, “based, more than anything, on the power of the work itself.” In fact, a Warhol Campbell’s Soup Can was one of the first artworks Beatz had acquired in the process of catching the collecting bug. The show’s early masters, however, are Ernie Barnes, whose fittingly-titled cityscape painting, First Painting, from 1957 is the checklist’s oldest. A group of recent photographs by artist and Civil Rights activist Kwame Brathwaite, who passed last year, join a salon-style hang of Barkley L. Hendricks’s small-scale paintings over a teal wall.

In addition to depth in narrative, scale is a varying element in the curator’s orchestration of an energetic viewing experience. “The word ‘giant’ also comes into play in size because they like to collect larger pieces that are ideal for a museum setting,” Gant added. Take, for example, G. Patterson’s mammoth installation . . . . they were just hanging out . . . you know . . . talking about . . . ( . . . when they grow up . . .) (2016). On an absorbing pink backdrop, the Kingston and Chicago-based artist conducts one of her signature gardens of various materials from shiny beads, rhinestones, and glitter to lush fabrics and fringes.

Perhaps the less direct but nuanced meaning of the word “giant” in the title is the show’s message to the audience—especially to young visitors of color—to emphasize their potential and give a chance to self-reflect about achievement. “An important goal is to have young people, whether they often see art or not, come from different neighborhoods and realize they can see representations of people who look like them,” said Gant. “This way, they can also see themselves in art.”