Giants - The Dean Collection at MIA
The Minneapolis Institute of Art puts on GREAT shows, and the exceptional Giants is up there with my favorites. The Dean Collection are the art works by Black artists collected by musicians Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean), who are cool enough to share these deep and moving pieces with the rest of us. I kind of feel bad telling you to GO! - because this show ends this Sunday, July 13. It took me a minute to get there - but there’s still a little time! I’m not sure where it’s going after Minneapolis, but you want to go.
You get to see two show stoppers before you even enter the space, with two huge portraits of Keys and Dean by Obama portrait artist, Kehinde Wiley there to welcome art lovers, alongside BMX bikes, a keyboard, and a sign saying Hip Hop Blvd.
This is a dense collection, and I’m just going to share a few highlights that I loved, to preserve your own sense of discovery when you do get the chance to go. I was particularly drawn to the work by women artists, of course, and …they were just hanging out you know…talking about…(…when they grow up…). 2016 by Ebony G. Patterson just floored me. Especially when I read her blurb saying, “First evoking childhood memories, she then confronts viewers with photographs of happy, Black children, posing the question: why are Black youth often treated as adult threats? Subtle details, such as bullet-like holes, allude to the tragedies caused by the adultification of Black children.” Phew.
The Dean Collection features Soundsuit, 2016 by Nick Cave (not the Australian musician), an incredibly detailed work, covered with a zillion little buttons.
“The Soundsuits hide gender, race, class, and they force you to look at the work without judgement”, offers the explanation. We could probably all use a Soundsuit these days.
You Shouldn’t Be the Prisoner of Your Own Ideas (LeWitt), 2017 by Hank Willis Thomas packs a punch because it is made from decommissioned prison uniforms, sewn together in a nod to the Black quilting traditions of the South. Yeah. Thomas “highlights the contradiction of mass incarceration in the ‘land of the free’ as one sewn into the fabric of U.S. history”. The truth truly does hurt.
Ultra-impressive is the room dedicated to a massive series of paintings by Meleko Mokgosi. WOW. Bread, Butter, and Power, 2018. The scale echoes 18th Century European paintings, but the subjects depict the modern day societal issues in Botswana. The amount of pure WORK involved is just staggering. It is a visual feast of epic proportions, and I felt privileged to be in the room. Again, WOW.
Things lightened up a bit in the room celebrating Blackness. “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud”, sang James Brown, and these rooms surely reflect that. Fly Girl, Brownsville, Brooklyn, NYC, 1980 takes us to the streets with the style and flair of those times.
One of my very favorites in this show was the gorgeous Portrait of Qusuquzah #6, 2012 by Mickalene Thomas. Mixing the glamour of Black women in the 1940’s (I think she looks like Billie Holiday) with the glitter of the 1970’s Disco times. It’s also great how MIA paints the walls to go so beautifully with the art works that hang on them. It’s all very thoughtful, as the Deans clearly are when they go about collecting art. It’s not just stuff to look at. You learn, you feel, you get inspired to make the world better.
There is a video playing on a loop where the Deans talk about their collection in such a profound, educational way, and both of their voices are so soothing you could listen to them talk about art all day. They’re both really impressive people in their own rights, and together they make one of the coolest couples around. I’m so delighted that they chose Minneapolis to share all of this with, it’s really something else.
I’ve always been drawn to art with words in it (whatever that’s called), so I loved Study for Spoken Word, 2006 by Ernie Barnes. “A celebration of the power of the written word” … I can get behind that. Bonus cool points for shouting out six Black writers in the bottom left corner. And the pink wall.
A celebration of Black artists pretty much has to have a Basquiat, and the Deans have Untitled (Langston Hughes), 1983 by Jean-Michel B. The placard says that Basquiat repeatedly mentioned Hughes’ name in the hope of raising awareness about him beyond Black communities in New York. Artists celebrating Artists is the over-arching theme I took away from this show, and the way we really all ought to be.
The Gordon Parks photographic version of American Gothic, 1942 recreates the classic Grant Wood painting with an “American charwoman” named Ella Watson, and reminds us that we don’t all live in the same America. Still. The Deans own the largest private collection of Gordon Parks photographs.
The show ends with a photograph by Jamel Shabazz called Kasseem & Alicia, 2018. Shabazz was inspired by a Parks image of the Black Panther Party leaders, Kathleen and Eldridge Cleaver. It doesn’t get a lot cooler than that. The show opens and closes with our gracious hosts both welcoming us and leaving a lasting impression.
This was just a little glimpse of what is a large and impressive absolute triumph of an exhibit. As I mentioned at the outset, this show ends THIS Sunday in Minneapolis. Get there this weekend, or keep your eyes open for the next stop of this remarkable Dean collection. It really is not to be missed.
GO: The Dean Collection at MIA
2400 3rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404