Giants: Of Ourselves, for Ourselves

Contemplate constructions of selfhood and self-determination as seen in contemporary art on view in Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.

This class, cofacilitated by Nydia Blas and Kelly Taylor Mitchell, will guide us through thoughtful examination and discussion of artworks on view in the exhibition, covering multiple mediums, styles, and themes. Week by week, we will explore the works of multigenerational Black diasporic artists, including twentieth-century legends and artists of a younger generation who are expanding the legacies of those who came before them. 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.

This class will meet on Wednesdays, October 9, 16, 23, and 30. On the first day of class, please present your QR code ticket to a Guest Relations team member at the Admissions and Information desk. Then, please proceed to the Lecture Room where this class is taking place. The Lecture Room is on the Lower Level of the Stent Family Wing in the Greene Family Education Center.

Nydia Blas is a visual artist who grew up in Ithaca, New York, and currently resides in Atlanta, where she is assistant professor in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Spelman College. She also works as a freelance photographer for clients such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. Her most recent exhibition, Nydia Blas: Love, You Came from Greatness, was on view at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University through January 7, 2024. She holds a BS from Ithaca College and an MFA from Syracuse University in the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Kelly Taylor Mitchell is an artist and educator who lives and works in Atlanta where she is currently a 2023–2024 Midtown Alliance Artist-in-Residence, a 2023–2024 Arts & Social Justice Fellow at Emory University, a 2023–2024 BIPOC Lyndon House Arts Foundation Fellow, and an assistant professor of art and visual culture at Spelman College. Mitchell’s multidisciplinary practice centers oral history and ancestral memory, real and imagined, woven into the fabric of the African diaspora. Her work is deeply invested in labor-intensive making, slowness, and homespun passed-down processes. Her work, across printmaking, papermaking, performance, book arts, and textiles, stems from ancestral origin points in the American South and Caribbean.

The High is the exclusive venue in the Southeastern United States to present the first major exhibition of the world-class art collection owned by musical and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys. Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, where it debuted in February 2024, Giants features a focused selection from the couple’s holdings, spotlighting works by multigenerational Black diasporic artists, including twentieth-century legends such as Nick Cave, Lorna Simpson, and Barkley L. Hendricks, and artists of a younger generation including Deana Lawson, Amy Sherald, and Ebony G. Patterson, who are expanding the legacies of those who came before them. Through approximately 115 objects, including 98 major artworks, the exhibition traces the evolution of an audacious and ambitious collection and explore the ways in which the featured artists and their work have grappled with societal issues, embraced monumentality, and made a palpable impact on the art canon.