The Grammy Award-winning singer Alicia Keys and producer and DJ known as Swizz Beatz have purchased a large number of artworks that they struggled to fit into their homes in California, New York, and New Jersey. Some gigantic paintings by artists like Kehinde Wiley, Derrick Adams, and Titus Kaphar have become staples of their daily routine, serving as backdrops to movie nights and family parties. They are now set to star in a major exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum’s Great Hall on Feb. 10.
The show is called “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” and features over 100 artworks, endorsing the couple as leading collectors of Black artists. They struggled to break into the market at first but over time, the art world has become more inclusive.
Dean started collecting as a teenager in the 1990s, using the proceeds from his first records with DMX to purchase an Ansel Adams photograph. His collection has grown exponentially since then, and he has been particularly interested in Black artists to make a positive impact on the market.
The Brooklyn Museum has been accused of staging populist exhibitions that are thin on scholarship, but the museum defends its programming. The museum’s director Anne Pasternak recruited Dean to join the board, and they are preparing for a major photography exhibition by Paul McCartney from the Beatles era in 2024.
Despite this, they have defended their mission to offer diverse programming.
Attendees might come to satisfy their curiosity about what kind of art world-famous musicians collect and stay because of the strengths of the Dean collection. So, the exhibition will have been a success. Displaying the collection of board members on the museum walls is generally frowned upon, so the museum and the couple emphasized that they are neither financing the show nor intend to sell anything on view.
The couple said they are preparing to donate several works from their collection to the museum but have declined to name exactly which or how many works will become gifts, saying the list is being finalized. Planning for the Brooklyn Museum exhibition started in 2022 and Dean resigned late last year from the museum board to avoid the appearance of any conflict.
As a trustee of the museum, the primary focus should be on benefiting the museum, not the trustee personally. However, Alicia and Swizz stated that they are donating the artwork to the museum as a way of showing the synergy between musicians and visual artists who are making a positive impact in the world through various forms of creative expression. Both musicians also emphasized, “by the artists, for the artists, with the people.”