Giants w/ JBarber
New Year, New season of Studio Noize! Your boy JBarber went to see Giants at the High Museum of Art and he has some thoughts. The exhibition featured art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beats and Alicia Keys. There are so many conversations to be had coming out of the show. There’s wealth and celebrity, there’s propaganda, and there’s phenomenal, awe inspiring art. We owe it to them and their efforts to give a good honest critique of the whole endeavor. The same way we examine a show like Afro Atlantic Histories we should examine the good and bad about Giants. A great way to blast into the new year! Listen, subscribe, and share!
Episode 194 topics include:
Giants at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta
celebrity and wealth in art
iconography
the who’s who of Black art
Kehinde Wiley’s 30ft painting
Barkley Hendrick
propaganda in exhibitions
Portrait of Qusuquzah by Mickalene Thomas
Musicians, songwriters, and producers Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys have stood as giants in the global cultural landscape for decades. As collectors, the Deans have lived their ethos of “artists supporting artists,” acquiring a world-class collection of paintings, photographs, and sculptures by diverse, multigenerational artists.
The exhibition illuminates the renown and impact of legendary and canon-expanding artists. Preeminent “giants” such as Barkley L. Hendricks, Esther Mahlangu, and Gordon Parks push the boundaries of what can be seen on canvas and in photography while building a foundation for today’s Black creatives. Contemporary artists like Hank Willis Thomas and Qualeasha Wood use materials like textiles, steel, and beads to celebrate Blackness and critique society, while mesmerizing compositions from Deana Lawson and Mickalene Thomas challenge and add nuance to perceptions of Blackness. Embodying the exhibition’s “giant” ethos, the paintings by Amy Sherald and Titus Kaphar command attention through striking monumentality. Together, these works bring to the fore many facets of the term giants and reflect the spirit of the Deans, whose creative lives infuse the exhibition.
See more: Giants exhibition at the High Museum
Jamaal Barber: @JBarberStudio
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