High Museum Director Rand Suffolk speaks with GPB's Kristi York Wooten about the new 'Giants' exhibition.
At the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Dr. Kimberli Gant is leading a tour of the museum's new exhibition, Giants. She passes by colorful paintings of musicians Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz by former President Obama's portraitist Kehinde Wiley.
The songs of Marvin Gaye are swirling in the background.
Gant is curator of art at the Brooklyn Museum. She talks about the partnership that brought to Georgia this private collection from the musicians, also known in their private life as the Deans, and the experiential aspects of the event.
“This show is really about the art of supporting artists,” she said. “And so bringing the music and the visuals together, bringing a multisensory experience as well as auditory is a way to celebrate and feel joy. [The artists], as we see, are also presenting some timely topics.”
The vibrant, entrancing show features more than 100 works by global art giants from both the last century and this one. On display are pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave, Amy Sherald and Ebony Patterson, as well as stunning photography from Gordon Parks, Jamel Shabazz, Malick Sidibé and others.
High Museum Director Rand Suffolk told GPB the exhibition was meticulously planned on the walls of the gallery.
“Kimberli was the organizing curator,” he said. “She was really the person that's responsible for the intellectual capital aspect of this whole thing and making the decisions about what work should be in the show. And there was a certain narrative arc that they had in Brooklyn, but I tried very much to lean into that and embrace that where we could. But I also wanted to take a huge advantage of the spaces that we had here at the [High] museum.”
The work is arranged in a way that combines depictions of extraordinary and aspirational moments with poignant snapshots of everyday life in Black culture. And sometimes, the message of the art meets the music — like when Gaye’s 1970 hit, “What’s Going On?” plays.
“Mother, mother, there's too many of you cryin’. Brother, brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying,” Gaye sings.
The song was written about the Vietnam War, protests, environmental concerns and discrimination.
Suffolk said Atlanta is the perfect place for the presentation of these major works, because few exhibitions reflect the faces of the local community like Giants does here.
“On the one hand, many Atlantans see themselves reflected in their museum and these incredible works," he said. "Number two, these are all world-class artists. So for anyone, it's an extraordinary experience, I think, to come and engage with these objects, the scale, the monumentality of many of them. Not only the physical works, but some of the artists that are here, I mean, are just extraordinary. The legacies, the multiplicity of voices that are here. And it's just a super fun show, too.”
As for the collectors who have lent their favorite pieces to this temporary installation, the Deans say they want to elevate the work of artists who've inspired them and pay it forward to museumgoers.
Giants is open at Atlanta's High Museum through Jan. 19, 2025.
