In 2021, legendary Fort Greene filmmaker Spike Lee told the LA Times his personal collection of ephemera and art was large enough to fill the Brooklyn Museum.
And Lee was right. Last week, "Spike Lee: Creative Sources" opened at the Brooklyn Museum, chronicling the icon’s life and groundbreaking career through more than 450 artworks, objects, letters and memorabilia spanning his enthusiastic interests in sports, music, politics and all things Black culture and Brooklyn.
The exhibit also includes family photos, personal handwritten notes from Mary Wilson of The Supremes and even a Love Symbol guitar that once belonged to Prince. And yes, his Oscars are also on display.
“The show is really trying to present another point of view on a director that we think we know, but we actually don't quite realize how much of a scholar he is in terms of global history, culture, cinema and music,” said Kimberli Gant, curator for the exhibition.
Lee was born in 1957 in Georgia and moved to Fort Greene with his family as a child, where he was raised and still lives today. Lee directed his first feature-length film, "Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads," while receiving his MFA at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
He rose to fame in the late 1980s with definitive films like "She's Gotta Have It" and "Do the Right Thing." His work became known for its sharp, humorous exploration of Black life in America, specifically in Brooklyn.
The show is split into seven sections, each with a clip from one of his films, which focuses on a different area of his collection.
The exhibit highlights his close ties with his family and paints a clear picture of the people — both famous and not — who have informed his career.
In addition to objects from Lee’s films, like the American flag burned in the opening sequence of "Malcolm X," the exhibition also boasts a collection of historic sports memorabilia, including tennis rackets owned by Arthur Ashe, as well as fine artworks from artists like Kehinde Wiley.
Lee's eclectic tastes also include photography from iconic 20th-century photographers Gordon Parks and James Van Der Zee. Photos from both are on view at the exhibit.
“He has all of these objects around him. He goes searching for them," Gant said. "He's reading; he's talking to directors; he's talking to actors. He's talking to artists and wanting to really present a complicated nuanced presentation of history and culture."
Exhibitions of the personal collections of figures like Lee are rare at the Brooklyn Museum. But the exhibition comes at an appropriate time, as a similar exhibition featuring another Brooklyn legend, Jay-Z, is currently on display at the Brooklyn Public Library.
“People like Spike Lee are a very particular case,” said Gant. “Because they are such cultural figures not just in Brooklyn or the United States, but also the world."
"Spike Lee: Creative Sources" will run at the Brooklyn Museum now through Feb. 4, 2024. Learn more here.
