The First Major Brooklyn Exhibition of Director Spike Lee
Through February 4, 2024, visitors at the Brooklyn Museum are afforded a rare look into the universe of film director Spike Lee with the immersive presentation “Spike Lee: Creative Sources.” The exhibition gives insight into the artistic inspiration and process behind Lee’s renowned movies, music videos, commercials, and other works produced in the last four decades, displayed within several thematic concepts prominent in the director’s work—Black American history and culture, Brooklyn, music, sports, family, politics, and cinema history.
“‘Spike Lee: Creative Sources’ offers a fresh perspective on a cultural icon, focusing on the individuals and influences that have shaped Spike Lee’s body of work, which is so well known today,” said Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum. “By making Lee’s collection accessible to the public, this showcase celebrates his legacy while honoring his deep connection to Brooklyn, a place that has been an integral part of his storytelling.”
Installation view, “Spike Lee: Creative Sources,” Brooklyn Museum, photo by Danny Perez.
Spike Lee: Creative Sources Features Hundreds of Artworks and Objects
Over 350 objects and pieces of memorabilia have been selected to represent Lee’s points of interest and inspiration, from historical photographs and album covers to paintings, letters, books, costumes, film memorabilia, and more. Seen among the seven thematic spaces, these objects can be found alongside film clips from the director’s most noteworthy projects, along with artworks from and representations of iconic Black American and African figures like artists James Van Der Zee, Gordon Parks, and Elizabeth Catlett and names like Malcolm X, Ella Fitzgerald, Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Prince, and Angela Davis.
Black American History and Culture Influenced Spike Lee
The director’s inspirations from Black American history and culture—a primary highlight of the exhibition—look to his 2000 film Bamboozled, critiquing minstrelsy and blackface, inspired by Michael Ray Charles’s satirical work of the same name from 1997. The section highlights a generation of activists working against segregation in a discourse that shines a spotlight on self-expression and community through snapshots of Harlem and individuals like James Baldwin and Lena Horne.
Installation view, “Spike Lee: Creative Sources,” Brooklyn Museum, photo by Paula Abreu Pita.
Spike Lee’s Favorite Things: Sports, Music, and More
In the section dedicated to sports, Lee’s admiration for Black athletes includes his commissioned painting by Kehinde Wiley of Jackie Robinson, tennis rackets belonging to Serena Williams and the first Black American to win three Grand Slam singles titles, Arthur Ashe, as well as photographs of memorable moments in sports history by David Levinthal. Influenced by his mother’s love for musicals and his late father Bill Lee, who was a jazz musician, Lee is known for films featuring collaborations with various musicians—a facet of his career explored in a display including images of musicians by Gordon Parks and items like Prince’s “Love Symbol” guitar and Brandford Marsalis’s signed saxophone, which nods to his collaboration for the soundtrack of Lee’s 1990 film Mo’ Better Blues.
Other noteworthy facets of the show include a compilation of vintage film posters highlighting the directors that inspired Lee (like Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa), a look at war propaganda drawing parallels to Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna (2008) and Da 5 Bloods (2020), and a section devoted to Lee’s family—which extends to include portraits of the individuals and colleagues that have helped shape the director’s luminous career.
Kehinde Wiley, “Investiture of Bishop Harold as the Duke of Franconia,” 2005, Oil on canvas; Collection of Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, © Kehinde Wiley, courtesy of the artist.
Behind the scenes of “Crooklyn,” Spike Lee, 1994, 115 min, photo © David C. Lee.
