Swizz Beatz & Alicia Keys x The Brooklyn Museum Presents: GIANTS

Musicians, songwriters, and producers Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys have stood as giants in our 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 Brooklyn Museum's presentation offers a focused selection of their holdings, spotlighting the Black diasporic artists in the Dean Collection. Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys illuminates the renown and impact of legendary and canon-expanding artists. Organized thematically, the exhibition opens with an introduction to the Deans' creative lives and their inspirational journey. The following sections foster "giant" conversations celebrating Blackness and critiquing society, inspired by the pieces on view. Monumental works-including the largest ever by Meleko Mokgosi and one of Kehinde Wiley's revolutionary portraits-are paired with masterpieces from vanguard artists on whose shoulders younger generations stand, such as Gordon Parks's seminal photographs and Esther Mahlangu's globe-bridging, abstract canvases. Together, these works bring to the fore the many facets of the term "giants." The Deans have cultivated rich, familial relationships with these contemporary artists, and they have advocated for their fellow musicians to also support living artists. Giants is a celebration of the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy art, cultivate a relationship with creativity, and build their own artistic community. For Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, all artists are giants.