By Zenzele Clark
The Spike Lee Creative Sources exhibit, currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum until February 11, is a deep dive into the personal collection of one of the biggest names in black film canon. The iconography of Spike Lee joints are known around the world and continuously inspire new generations of filmmakers. The exhibition illuminates this genealogy of reference as Lee shares the people and artwork which informed his creative practices across a prolific and expanding body of work.
“Many times people come [to] Forty Acres and a Mule in Fort Greene, Brooklyn and the first thing they say is ‘Spike this is a museum.” Lee shared in a Brooklyn Museum video introducing the exhibit. This sentiment has become reality through the curatorial work of Kimberli Grant and Indira A. Abiskaroon. The over 450 selected pieces are organized somewhat chronologically, leading viewers through Lee’s evolving artistic inspirations: His family including Jazz musician father Bill Lee, his childhood home of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, photographers like James Vander Zee, and of course Black star athletes like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Satchel Page. The work hangs on brightly painted walls, each section separated by walls of exposed wood, foundations without drywall suggestive of the next artistic project yet to be realized.
Throughout the exhibit homage is paid to Black artistic and political pioneers, many of whom had personal relationships with Lee. He tells the story of repeatedly asking Prince for one of his guitars and, one day, a golden “Love Symbol” guitar arrived on his doorstep. Another gift is a flag for African National Congress signed with a motivational message from Nelson Mandela. Many of Lee’s inspirational figures were Black revolutionaries, considered radical in their time. The racial sensibilities and social criticism of Lee’s oeuvre reveal an eagerness to explore Black experiences, not only of trauma but also joy. His is a success story of black capitalism, lauded by some but problematized by others.
Liberalism subsumes several items; a framed letter from VP Kamala Harris, an NYPD recruitment advertisement featuring Mike Tyson. Despite focusing on polemic racial issues and figures in works like Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Bamboozled, reformist politics seem to cloud Lee’s image of Black progress.
The undeniably incredible aspect of this exhibit is seeing the work of so many Black legends in one place, enough to make any art-lover geek out. Opening such a vast collection to the public reckons with the importance of auto-citation amongst Black artists, giving credit to talents who’s legacies are less referenced than their white counterparts. In order to continue the chain of inspiration and homage amongst black artists we must think deeply about the conditions necessary to foster black freedom of expression; all the battles we have yet to win and the radical actions which progress so often requires.
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor
more than 450 works drawn from his personal collection.
https://d1lfxha3ugu3d4.cloudfront.net/press/docs/2023_BrooklynMuseum_PressRelease_SpikeLee_final_10.3.pdf
